Danny Crossman – December 19, 2024
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Thursday, December 19, 2024
Special Teams Coordinator Danny Crossman
(With K Jason Sanders and PATs, is it a technique thing, do you think? Was there a common thing between the two?) – “No. The timing was a little bit off, got a little bit too tight and wrapped it. Something that you don’t want to see and you hope doesn’t happen but it did. As soon as he hit it, he knew exactly what happened so we’ll get that cleaned up.”
(The snap and hold were fine on that play?) – “Yeah. Not perfect, but had nothing to do with the result.”
(Nine weeks ago, I raised you the zany idea of going through an entire season alternating long snappers, and by George, by golly it’s turned out that way. This is long snapper number five, what has left you in this position and has it been a palatable scenario?) – “Just how this season has played out from a roster standpoint, it just turned out that continually things evolving and changing positionally on the club that that was what was best for the club and the organization and the team at this time. It’s not something I recommend; it’ll probably be a record that will sit for a while. Fortunately Jason (Sanders) and Jake (Bailey) have done a really good job of working with each guy we’ve brought in. The guys that we’ve brought in have been outstanding and dove into what we’ve asked them to do. It’s not easy; I don’t know if anybody thinks it is, but it’s not. They’ve done a great job and we’ll see where we’re at this week. We’re happy that Jake McQuaide was available and we’ll go from there.”
(One last thing on this topic. Obviously while not indulging anything at all personal about LS Blake Ferguson, fans are concerned. Is he going to be OK?) – “Again, not to put anybody’s business out there, No. 1 illegal, but yeah. Right now for where the club is, the best decision was to let him know and inform him that he is not going to be snapping in a game for the rest of the season. Hopefully that puts at rest his mind and where he is, where he’s working and what he’s working on. It also lets everybody else know where we’re going and what we’re doing so there is not the constant question of what, where, when, how and why.”
(What are those conversations like with those long snappers that keep coming in? Do you tell them, “Hey, you’re here for three weeks tops?”) – “You don’t know. Ideally, I think when this started there was maybe a desire or a hope that one of them would be able to. It had nothing to do with any of those individuals as we went through this. But as those weeks, as those guys were here, as we ate through those flexes that you’re allowed three of them, there were a lot of other things going on around the team at the same time that the best maneuver for the organization was keep using the flex and use the 53 on other things, whether it be injury, whether it was a player available that we didn’t feel like we could pass up. So there was a lot of things to go into it.”
(The fake punt, Head Coach Mike McDaniel said you guys were prepared for it. Were you prepared? What happened there?) – “It’s like anything, preparation is execution. It was something we were aware for; we were in a call based on their history in that situation we felt good about. The execution is where we fell off. You can talk to every coach and regardless of position, there’s good calls, there’s bad calls, but it doesn’t matter what the call is, it’s got to be executed. Whether it’s technique, or eyes, or communication, when something gets missed, you give up a play or you make a play conversely. We felt good about it before the ball was snapped, but it was a big play in the game.”
(I remember your words at the start of this long snapper rotation, you used the phrase “very risky.” Given that you haven’t had a disaster along the way, do you feel fortunate? Were you holding your breath?) – “It’s work. Yeah, it’s hard but again, I give the credit to the players. The guys that we brought in and obviously the rest of the group. It’s hard on other players, it’s hard on the guards, the guys on punt team when you get to a new guy – his sequence, his tendencies, his body style. The guys on field goal, the same thing – the tempo, the timing. There’s so many more moving parts in it than you should probably think about. I have to think about it. They’ve done a good job, but again, we’ve still got games to play. It’s going to be something I continually work on and monitor and spend time on. Hopefully we continue to be able to execute.”
(How deep is this list of potential…) – “As they say, we’re into the desert. (laughter)”
(How would you grade this season for the special teams unit as a whole and your job leading it?) – “We’re not even close to even thinking about that. I’ve got a practice today I got to get ready for and prepare for and work on. And then we’ve got another one tomorrow and a game, and then we’ve got two more weeks. That’s you guys, that’s not on my radar.”
(Who takes the lead in contacting long snappers? Is it General Manager Chris Grier, someone else in personnel, or you?) – “In the personnel department. Regardless of – there’s ready lists. The personnel department has ready lists. I have ready lists; you’re always tracking what’s going on. Now with some of these new spring leagues, that’s added more bodies. You’re able to get more tape, but there’s a constant readiness availability because you never know when stuff is going to happen. Sadly, you saw what happened in Houston last week and they weren’t able to do anything about it, but the night before the game, a player has to have emergency appendix surgery. There’s so many things that happen – car accidents, sickness, so you have to have that list ready to go and you better have them stacked and be able to execute and hopefully get one in and move forward.”
(When you get to this part of the season, when playoff hopes are very dim in mid-December, do you have to motivate players? Do you rely on their professionalism? What’s kind of the process of keeping them motivated?) – “It’s some of both of those things. Every individual is different. Everybody’s individual is motivated by different things; certain guys, how you approach them. It’s all different. I look at it strictly like we are all professionals. I am paid to coach and teach, and I’m going to coach and I’m going to teach every single day the same way I have my entire career when I was coaching at Division III colleges. Every single day I’m trying to get players better, more knowledgeable to extend their career and win games. So it doesn’t matter, I’m just trying to go 1-0 every week, it doesn’t matter what our record is, I’m just trying to win the current game.”
(Can I ask you a question just as a football guy? WR Tyreek Hill, he has this kind of cryptic tweet that says, “It’s time for me to go coach,” after the loss to Houston – he did it yesterday. Do you find that distracting, is that – there’s what’s called a troll, somebody who just likes to stir stuff up. Is he the perfect troll? Is this a distraction? What do you think about that?) – “I have no idea what you’re talking about. (laughter)”
(I just wanted to ask because you’re a veteran football coach.) – “I don’t look, I don’t read anything. I’m buried, I don’t pay any attention to anything. (laughter)”
(Is there a decent chance you use WR Isaiah McKenzie this week?) – “Again, we have a couple guys injured and hopefully we get some guys back. If not, he’s a guy that we signed that has a decent history in this league, so we’re looking – a possibility, but again, we’re still a couple days away. Obviously, we’re always hopeful about the guys on the 53 (-man roster). If we have to, just as we have all year, we’ll use those flexes on where we deem necessary. But he’s a good player, fortunately he was available at this point in the season.”
Mike McDaniel – December 18, 2024
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Wednesday, December 18, 2024
Head Coach Mike McDaniel
(I was going to ask you about the two guys involved in roster moves on the 53 – with WR Grant DuBose, is he doing better? Has he flown home from Houston? And then less importantly but on the other move, the long snapper move, is LS Blake Ferguson simply not ready to return yet from a physical standpoint, from a mental standpoint, from some standpoint?) – “Grant (DuBose), expecting him to travel home today. Haven’t seen him (but) talked to him, and we’re all just very, very excited to get to see him. He’s been on the constant mind of a lot of people. He’s doing well, taking it a day at a time with that. And then I don’t think we’ll be seeing Blake (Ferguson) this season. His focus will be the 2025 season and that’s why we did the move.”
(What does WR Tyreek Hill mean when he says [on] on social media platform X, “It’s time for me to go coach” or “time for me to go, coach” – one of those?) – “I know that he tweeted something because of my outstanding prep but otherwise I wouldn’t. I guess I read it as he’s talking about coaching. There’s not a comma, but probably when he was typing, it was a comma. I don’t know. He was in great spirits in walkthrough. So maybe he just wanted you to ask me in my press conference, but you’ll have to ask him exactly what he meant. But I think it would’ve made more sense if he would’ve said ‘sir’ because that’s what he usually calls me. (laughter)”
(I know you’ve got a game coming up. With things not going the way you planned this season, have you thought about your future? Have you thought about General Manager Chris Grier’s future, whether you’ll be here next season? Does that concern you at all right now?) – “I’m very comfortable with the realities within the profession that I chose. I think the alternative would be to feel entitled, and I think it’s very much – I don’t take for granted getting a team prepared for this week’s opponent and this day and those opportunities, and I think ultimately you know what it is when you sign up for it and I’m not worried about that in the slightest. I think that would be absolutely selfish and something that if I’m worried about that, I’m definitely not worried about the things that I have to offer the players that are playing in a professional football game. I think this season hasn’t gone the way anybody necessarily wanted, but I mean how often do we say that in life in general? I think my job is not to predict and expect; my job is to adjust and ultimately if you’re going to fall short in certain ways, then what you do is you make those reasons for improvement as you move forward. But we have enough to worry about with the San Francisco 49ers and I don’t take that lightly, and neither does our team which is what I expected to walk into today. You never know, but I certainly was met with that type of focus and energy from the football team which means the guys are who I thought they were and that’s where our sole focus is.”
(What’s your take on the 49ers this year? Obviously won the NFC last year. This year they’re fighting for a playoff spot.) – “The NFL is hard. The success breeds tough times ahead because when you’re a good team especially for as long as the San Francisco 49ers have been good, there’s not one team that lines up on Sunday taking them lightly. It’s a litmus test of sorts for every team that plays. Every team has different sorts of injuries and you have different sorts of consequences because of those injuries based on where your strengths and weaknesses are on your team. I know one thing about the San Francisco 49ers having worked there for five years, and knowing the coaching staff and a good amount of the core players there, is very, very prideful team in playing good football. So I think as you go through, sometimes you have success, sometimes you have failures in this league, but it’s the consistency with which you attack things and do you let things define you or do you take from things so that you can further define the future. I think they’re certainly frustrated as we are, it’s been a trying year, but in no way, shape or form do I expect anything but their best. Ultimately, just knowing the quality of people, they’ll get through it and find a way to make their best versions of themselves moving forward. So that’s about it, I don’t make more of it than I think it is. You lose some games that you have the capability of winning and your record can flip like that. And a lot of those games there’s a three-point margin of victory and you have one or two plays in each one of them and the record is very different.”
(They got LB Dre Greenlaw back last week and it looked like it made a big difference in their defense. How do him and LB Fred Warner challenge what you do offensively?) – “I think they challenge every offense. Both being drafted there and watching them mature, they’re at the top of their class in their respective positions. Fred Warner will be one of the best players that you play during the NFL season, regardless of who’s on your schedule, if the 49ers come up, and the way Dre (Greenlaw) complements his game, both very locked in from a cerebral perspective. Both very talented for the features of their position, both have a chip on their shoulder as they were told by many a team that they weren’t first or second, or in Dre Greenlaw’s case, third or fourth round draft picks. So they’re made up of the right stuff and they present a very quality, competitive scenario for us to have to attack. And what they put on tape is that if you’re not on your Ps and Qs or your technique and fundamentals aren’t on it, they’ll expose that, and so it will be a great challenge for us.”
(How did you and Kyle Shanahan become friends or associates? And were you guys ball boys together, or how did that friendship strike up?) – “It was – I guess that’s a good question because unbeknownst to most, it was like an arranged marriage, I would say, because I got a job. Coach (Gary) Kubiak hired me independently of Kyle Shanahan – giving Kyle Shanahan his first position job; me, my first professional, paying, full-time NFL coaching gig. He thought that we would work well together and be able to complement each other, so he threw me in the receiver room and we started working. I mean he was – the staff previous, the youngest coach I think was Troy Calhoun, the head coach at Air Force, and there wasn’t a lot of time to train me, so I just had to fill in the gaps as it happened. Kyle was the first guy that – I had aspects to my job that he had directly done just the previous two years, so he knew the ins and outs of what the position was. He, early, onset, put high expectations on me and held me very accountable and I’m very grateful to him for that and I wouldn’t be here today without him but it wasn’t – I think we grew to like each other, but we were kind of thrust together and I was definitely fortunate that Gary Kubiak had that foresight.”
(So you didn’t know him in Denver?) – “I knew of him, but he was a busy guy. He was the head football coach’s son. ‘Who’s this guy?’ was me. We would talk from time to time, but we didn’t develop a relationship until we started coaching together.”
(I know it’s too early to know T Terron Armstead’s status for the game. Do you have a general feeling about Terron and some of your older veterans? Are you going to play them, or would you kind of take a look at youngsters such as T Patrick Paul?) – “The compass with which will set my decision-making without fail this week is whatever gives us the best chance to win. I think that’s very important to everyone involved and that’s what’s owed to the team. I think within that, if there’s opportunities for some of our younger guys, there has been the last couple weeks for sure, not just at the tackle position but across the board. I think it’s very beneficial for guys and their career, but it’s based upon their merit and whether or not they’ve proven to their teammates that they’re ready to go out there. I’m optimistic about seeing both Terron (Armstead) and Kendall Lamm in practice this week and when I do that, I’ll confer with the coaches and Chris (Grier) and make the decision solely upon what gives our team the best chance to win on Sunday.”
(When it comes to LB Bradley Chubb, is there a point in which you would consider withholding him from coming back this season? Like if playoffs are mathematically out of the question.) – “I think that’s complicated; I think the most important thing is to allow guys opportunity in their career to play football, and you do that by taking it a day at a time and making sure that you’re being responsible in those efforts. There’s always an inherent risk when you play football, but remember it’s their careers, not ours or yours or anybody’s. So I have a tough time just telling people ‘no’ without reason, but it’s important in this business to have very good relationships so that you can have those conversations to not do something ignorant either. Bradley Chubb is a football player; he wants to play football and so he’s going to take this week a day at a time. We’re going to be in steady conversation and we’ll do what’s best for both him and the team because those should be parallel. We’ll see how that progresses, but his main focus is just getting more and more confident in his body each and every day, and that comes with continuing to press and then evaluating after the fact.”
(If you don’t have WR Jaylen Waddle this week, or WR Dee Eskridge, I don’t know if you have any updates on there, what was appealing about WR Isaiah McKenzie to add him as an elevation option possibly this week?) – “I think I would be pessimistic about Dee Eskridge this week. I think that Isaiah (McKenzie) is a guy that I’ve known since coming out of the draft process and then watching him specifically in Buffalo. I think he has a lot of value and skill set that we like. I like the way he plays football as a fearless competitor and so I’m excited to see him practice once, which will be today, in a Dolphins uniform because I haven’t seen that yet.”
(With WR Jaylen Waddle, do you think we’ll see him practice this week or hard to say?) – “Won’t see him today. For him, that will be a day-to-day situation. It’s hard to forecast what it’ll be tomorrow with that fresh injury, but again there is at least optimism for that. So I’ll be hopeful that we’ll see him but I don’t really know.”
(QB Teddy Bridgewater said that he is looking to get back into playing after leading Miami Northwestern to a high school football state championship.) – “His first year coaching – they win the championship every year, right? I mean, when he’s there, right? All of his teammates were watching from a far. I knew probably five minutes after the game was over that they’d won. We’ve been following it all season, so it’s really cool. Shoot, he’s a young spry at 32 – he has years in him. We’ll see if the come down stays consistent from his championship win, but I would support him doing whatever. He’s one of my favorites.”
(Any conversations with him coming here?) – “I’ve been preparing for the San Fransisco 49ers. Outside of shooting a text of congratulations to him, it’s not his style to even enter into those conversations until the season would be over anyway just because he those other guys are trying to do their jobs as well. I’m sure we’ll connect when this season is over, and I’ll be very interested to see if he’s still in the same mindset.”
(I wanted to ask you about the run game. I know we’ve been obsessed with this for quite a while, but how do you go from the highest yards per carry one season to second lowest the next season with pretty much relatively the same line and the same backs?) – “If you take it on surface value, it can be pretty confusing. I can understand the question for sure. I think just like anything that’s worth anything, it’s a little more complicated than that with regard to you’re playing opponents that are preparing for you and where is your game at, where is the collective game of the offensive line, how tied in are the runners to the offensive line. The numbers had been down; there’s been times throughout the season where you could argue that – I think empirically you can argue that we ran the ball better than we ever have against the Patriots. There’s different matchups that you felt pretty good about, but overall I thought this past game, it really bit us in our ability to execute technique and fundamentals. I’m very hesitant to just saying ‘It’s this.’ So I go and look through schematically just as we were doing earlier in the season when we knew we had to get the run game going, when Tua (Tagovailoa) got hurt and we weren’t happy with the Tennessee game and et cetera, et cetera, you go schematics. It’s an easy formula of just holding people accountable and asking what are we coaching them, what are they saying, motivating guys to focus on certain details that you think are the most important, and then overall, we have to do our jobs better. But when your line of scrimmage is violated to the point you have some turnover football, that you have some hits on the quarterback and you’re not able to stay on the field as long as you want, you have to figure out a way to reestablish the line of scrimmage and that problem is not going anywhere until we solve it. I think it’s very convoluted; there’s a lot of variables when you just flatline say, ‘It’s the same guys, what’s the difference?’ I think you have to look at the independent plays where the failures are and what are the consistent failures. Last game I thought we weren’t nearly where we needed to be at the point of attack, how to engage blocks, our leverages and staying attached to players. I think we have pressing so that when we do have an advantage on the defense, we’re getting holding calls left and right – probably threefold to what we had last year. It’d be interesting if guys choose to have their hands inside and fit the blocks well so they are not getting called for holdings and those holdings don’t occur, what is our yards per carry then. I think that that has something to do with it as well. I think that you can be understated – we haven’t done a good enough job executing in the run game, I think, since Austin Jackson left, and that’s been a focus of ours because he’s a very good player at the point of attack, but we have other good players too and how do we get that consistent. I think, like anything in football, it’s a group effort and it starts with focusing on the right thing, not just the result but more of what does it look like and where are the failures at the point of attack.”
Tua Tagovailoa – December 18, 2024
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Wednesday, December 18, 2024
QB Tua Tagovailoa
(I guess first how do you mentally bounce back from a game that I’m sure you weren’t pleased with just last Sunday?) – “That’s the thing about this league. That’s sort of the mindset you have to take on for players, coaches alike. Whether it was the best game you had, whether it was the worst game you had; you’ve got to learn how to move on from that because the next team doesn’t care whether you won or not. They’re focused on how they can stop you. We’re focused on how we can get points on the board, focused on things that we can get better on, all of that. So I wouldn’t say anyone’s necessarily worried too much about things that lost us the game as much as what we’re trying to do to focus on winning the next game which is the Niners.”
(Head Coach Mike McDaniel praised you and WR Tyreek Hill’s ability to take accountability for the turnovers on Sunday. I’m just curious what does that process look like? Is it as simple as just “my bad” or do you talk about it a little more with the guys. How do you fully express to your team that “it’s on me”?) – “That’s just it. It’s just letting the guys know that this is why we weren’t as successful as we were in these past games. Me and Tyreek being on the same page, us not being on the same page; that’s something that we take accountability for, but there’s no excuses as to why that had happened and why it kept reoccurring. No excuses for that and that’s not the ball that we play here and so that’s not going to happen again. We’ve got to move forward from that and it’s a new challenge that we have.”
(So I guess he was supposed to be in front on the first interception, in front of the safety. Watching it, once he’s running behind the linebacker, it seems like a tough angle to get in front of the safety. Was he supposed to be in front of both linebacker and safety?) – “You’ve got to ask Tyreek (Hill) about that one. That would’ve been a tough ask for him to have wrapped that linebacker and with the timing and anticipation that we play with, that’s what ended up happening, was just basically threw it right to the guy, right to the defender because it just progressed on that play. I was trying to make something happen that wasn’t there and that’s what it was.”
(On the return were you making sure to stay away from contact? I’m not asking to be critical, but is that something you were instructed to do on a return after the one in L.A.?) – “No, no. There were some other factors that played in that, but no.”
(What do you think of 49ers DE Nick Bosa?) – “Beast. There’s a lot of good things to say about him. There’s a lot of good things to say about Fred (Warner), about Leonard (Floyd) on the other side of Nick. They have a lot of good guys on their team – a lot of playmakers, a lot of guys that you can see they’ve played in the league for some time. They’ve seen a lot of looks and they know what their issues are defensively and they know how to counteract what the offenses that have found success against them are trying to do and try to get to. So I think it’s going to be a tough challenge for us going against those guys with Fred leading the charge. In my opinion probably one of the best linebackers that I’ve gotten to play against when we played them in ’22. I’ve got a lot of respect for him and got a lot of respect for those guys on that side. It’s going to be a tough challenge and we’re looking forward to it.”
(Is finishing the season with a winning record on your radar? It’s still possible to have a winning record.) – “Finishing with a winning record for me, for sure is always something that I want to do, but it’s also something that we’re trying to do collectively as a team to try to finish the season out the way we said we wanted to where we’re not rolling over, we’re not laying down and we’re going to put our best football out there and that’s what it’s going to be.”
(What have you seen from I guess other guys in the locker room that shows you that guys are not going to roll over, that they still have a lot to play for? Or do you feel like you even have to step up with this group and say, “hey, we still have games to play”?) – “I think it’s conversations that you overhear and conversations that you have with certain guys, but I think what’s so cool is there’s so many guys that have played in the league for some time in this locker room to where they also understand the magnitude of ‘if I lay down,’ what that looks like. We all make a living playing this game and so for the guys that decide ‘okay, maybe I’ll lay down’ – you look at guys like Jeff Wilson getting opportunities. You can look at guys like Kendall Lamm, just throughout the history of when things haven’t been going right for them and then they get called upon late in the season regardless of whatever the team’s record was, you see they’re still on teams. They’re able to find ways to make money that way and so I would say just the conversations that you have with guys in there and the amount of experience with the veterans as well.”
(WR Malik Washington led the team in receiving last week. What is it about his skillset that is so appealing?) – “He’s smart. Malik (Washington) is smart. He understands where he needs to be in the timing of the play. He understands what he needs to do in terms of the run game. There’s really not much you need to tell him, and that’s saying a lot especially in this offense with the verbiage being a lot. And him being able to process – I mean, really, really smart guy.”
(With TE Jonnu Smith, your connection with him – it reminds me a little bit of how you threw to Irv Smith back at Alabama? Is there something about the tight end position or the routes that they run that make it a nice outlet for you as a passer?) – “I think it’s just finding the way of being comfortable with that person – throws that, okay, you know how you’ve got to throw it to them, certain throws where they’re more of a body type or they can catch both ways. I would say with Jonnu (Smith), it’s sort of endless if you look at it. If he needs to big body the ball, he can do that. If he needs to use his hands, he can do that as well and it’s not just plays down the field in the short game but also screen with him. If you just allow him to get the ball into his hands, he’s super dangerous with the ball.”
(I wanted to ask about your scramble run for the first down, you dove forward. Is that a play that you’re still willing to do that if the defenders are coming from the side and not in front of you or how do you kind of play that out?) – “Probably should’ve just threw it out to Jonnu (Smith), see if Jonnu could’ve got something from that to just mitigate the hits and whatnot that I take in that sense, but in the heat of the moment, just competitive greatness, trying to see if I could get it. That was it.”
(You’ve mentioned and Head Coach Mike McDaniel as well how big the short passing game has been as far as an extension of the run game that hasn’t been able to get going the past few weeks. How tough was it specifically on Sunday to not have a run game going?) – “It was tough and I would say it was also tough for us to complete our short passes as well with the way they played their defense, and so I give props to Houston for the game plan that they had. But that’s also a good learning lesson for us if teams want to go that route in how they want to defend us and stop us. We’ve got to have answers for that.”
(I’m sure you’ve been made aware of WR Tyreek Hill’s Tweet. He said “It’s time for me to go coach” – not sure if there was a comma there or not. What do you think he means by that? Have you seen him? What interactions have you had…?) – “What does it say?”
(“It’s time for me to go coach” with no comma. Some might think it means “it’s time for me to go, coach.”) – “I have no idea. I don’t want to speculate on what Tyreek (Hill) Tweets or what he does. I mean, you guys should probably know better than me, Tyreek embraces all of that. He loves that. So if you guys give him a foot, he’s going to take 10 feet.”
Anthony Walker Jr. – December 16, 2024
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Monday, December 16, 2024
LB Anthony Walker Jr.
(Word on the street is your new nickname is Santa Walker. I don’t know how you got those jerseys, but I graduated high school 32 years ago. You could hook me up?) – “I got you. (laughter) No, obviously wasn’t even expecting all that – the reaction from the guys. I actually planned to do this when the first initial 53-man roster was set and then things happened where guys get cut, traded, everything like that. So kept adding guys and stuff like that. It just happened to come around where we finally got a set group and it was around Christmas time and wanted to get the guys something special. I give all the credit to my guy at All Stars Miami, though, Anthony Castro. He did everything, all the groundwork. I got him the roster and he said ‘I’ve got the rest of it.’ Obviously paid a big steep price for it but was able to take care of it for me and happy the guys enjoyed it.”
(How does he go about getting them? Is it he recreates them or is doing the legwork and getting the jersey from each school?) – “No, I think he just kind of looked at pictures once he looked at the guys because Raheem (Mostert) had No. 31 in his only picture on the internet from high school, No. 31. He actually wore No. 2 his senior year, but we didn’t know that. So kind of just went off the pictures that we found and he did his thing.”
(Did you expect the reaction that you got?) – “Not at all. I was literally like, ‘man, here you guys go.’ I’ve been kind of wearing it throughout the season, guys that I looked up to growing up so I was wearing it every home game and then when the guys saw it, like Jonnu (Smith) literally acting like a little kid. (laughter) Just so happy. Again, I didn’t expect the reaction obviously on social media but definitely not from the guys in the locker room and just realized how important that was to them.”
(What is it about high school that makes it so special because I know you talked about wearing the jerseys every game and then did you ever get the jerseys for your team at Pace?) – “My high school team? Yeah, I had to get them real jerseys to play in. (laughter)”
(What is it about high school that makes it resonate so much with everybody?) – “Yeah, I think that’s that first step when you realize like, ‘I’ve got to really commit to this process. I’ve got to really do the extra work.’ Obviously you play Little League and all that stuff and that’s just really fun, but one of my favorite movies ‘Remember The Titans,’ he’s like, ‘you think football is still fun?’ (laughter) You’ve got that balance of fun and then it’s not fun anymore; you’ve really got to grind to get that scholarship to really take that next step in your career. So that’s kind of like that groundwork that’s been laid. I think a lot of guys kind of said that. Like, ‘man, I remember those times where I wanted to get to this point.’ So looking back, seeing all the work that we all put in to get here and be here – even you guys, I know you guys, we all went through high school – and again, that’s that groundwork that we laid to be where we’re at now and in the space that we live in in the NFL world. So I think that’s again, just that remembrance of all the hard work that we put in and one thing I’ll say, like when I started to look at the jerseys was, ‘man, like it’s one from every high school,’ right? Like high school it’s 40-50 guys on the team and it’s one guy – sometimes you get more – but most times it’s one guy, you’re the only guy on your high school team that’s still playing football at this time. So just very special and unique to have that moment where you just realize, man, I’m really blessed being able to continue playing this game at the professional level and represent my high school team, my teammates, my family. All that stuff. So yeah, just kind of brought it all back together.”
(You mentioned that groundwork. Is that sort of like an underlying foundation for you guys now going forward considering the playoff hopes are slim at this point but you’ve still got to go out there and be professional and as you said, you’ve worked your whole life for these moments to play in the NFL?) – “Yeah, man, the standard is still the standard. You can never take that for granted. Like I said, we’re very blessed to play this game and any time you go out there and you think anything less is when it ends for you, and you don’t want that. We play this game and we play it and it’s a kid’s game, right? They say it, but we get paid to do this and you’re held to a standard and as long as you have the opportunity to play this game, you’ve got to uphold that standard and I know I have no doubt in my mind that every guy on this team is going to do that.”
(And when football is no longer fun, you see one of your teammates laid out like you see WR Grant DuBose laid out yesterday, just talk about that aspect of it. The emotions of the guys when they saw one of their brothers down.) – “Like I said, any time you see even an opponent go down, opposing team player or your team; it stops for a second and you realize, ‘man, this could happen at any moment.’ Where someone could not be playing football again and sometimes even worse. You never want to think about that, but again, it makes you cherish the game that much more, realizing at any moment this game could be taken away at any moment, whether I’m hurt or anything like that. I could just not be out here anymore, so while I am out here, I want to give it my all and play for the guy next to me and keep making my family proud, hometown proud, however you play the game. But again, it just could be taken away at any moment and for him, obviously I’m just happy that he is doing a lot better, but that’s a scary moment. As any teammate will tell you, you never want to see that because again, like shoot, sometimes like ‘am I going to be in my right mind to continue to play this game?’ So like I said, happy for him and his progress and we’re still praying for him and we’ll be ready to see him when he gets back.”
(Is it a relief, if that’s the right word, every time you hear an encouraging report like they put out today? Like you just never know what could happen overnight. This morning you hear things are going good. How much does that kind of take a deep breath?) – “No doubt. Any time like you said, overnight you’re not getting any answers. You’re just waiting to see and find out and to get positive news is always great. Obviously we know he’ll have a recovery process to go through, but again, it could be a lot worse and never want to say that but it is true. It can, and we don’t want to get to that point, but we saw last year Damar Hamlin, again just situations – I think the kid at Alabama A&M this year. You just never want to get to that point where – like I said, it’s a little kid game, but at the end of the day it’s serious. It’s life or death sometimes.”
(Switching gears a little bit, obviously Teddy Bridgewater, you looked up to him. He won the state championship this weekend. What was your reaction – first-year head coach winning it all?) – “I told him – I texted him right after – I was like, ‘you’ve always been the standard.’ Down here just the hard work that he’s always put in, he’s always been the leader, captain of his football teams growing up, someone my dad would always point out and be like, ‘man, that’s a guy you should follow.’ Just again, just watching him play, grow – when he played at Miami Northwestern, when he played at Louisville and played in the NFL – I had no doubt that he’d go win and obviously he was scared to play against Monsignor Pace this year, (laughter) but I knew he’d go and do good things at that program. He has a lot of pride for the city, for that school and yeah, he led those guys and I expect nothing less from him.”
(Did you see the video of him celebrating?) – “Of course. Yeah, he’s crazy. (laughter) That’s the side – I’ve known Teddy for a while and I know that side of him, so I wasn’t surprised at all. But yeah, he enjoys it. I think one thing about him though, he’s hard on the kids, but he also celebrates with the kids. He makes it fun for the kids as well, so I think that’s a positive about him. Just him setting the standard for that team but also understanding it’s a little kid game. I can have fun with the guys and then you’ve got to celebrate the wins.”
(I wanted to ask you about that – I hate using the term “soft” when it talks about any football player, but you’re coaching kids coming up. There’s a lot of flash out there but not a lot of substance when it comes to these kids. In the NFL how do you find leaders? Are there still leaders? Are there still guys that’ll chew guys out? That’ll still point things out? Not point fingers but calling guys out? How tough is that in the NFL nowadays?) – “I think it’s different on every time. I always say that, but I think it’s the confidence in yourself honestly and then that teammate has to be able to trust you. You can’t just be doing everything wrong and then trying to chew out another teammate. That’s never going to happen. So any time when you yourself, you uphold the standard that is set for the team; yeah, now I have the right to correct someone when they’re doing wrong or again, like you said, no pointing the finger, but we’re all remembering the goal that’s at hand and if that goal and that standard isn’t being met, I have to hold you to that. So again, just that relationship you have with your teammate, again, that’s what it’s about – relationships and the trust in that teammate and he knows it’s not coming from a place of ill-will but more so from a place of love and wanting nothing but the best for you as well.”
(Has it gotten tougher? Like your generation…?) – “I don’t think my generation. I think a little younger maybe, but my generation, I think we’re still solid. I’ve always had a good group of friends outside of football and within football that kind of help hold me to a standard and when you have that group that one being Jacoby Brissett who calls me after every game and tells me if I did right or wrong. (laughter) Just a guy like that though, we hold each other to that standard where it’s like some things aren’t going to be tolerated and we know if you’re doing right or you’re doing wrong.”
Mike McDaniel – December 16, 2024
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Monday, December 16, 2024
Head Coach Mike McDaniel
(An encouraging updated statement on WR Grant DuBose earlier this morning. With regard to WR Jaylen Waddle, was his injury knee or ankle? Do you think he’s going to play again this year?) – “So I don’t have much to add on Grant (DuBose). We’ll be excited to see him when doctors deem it appropriate for him to fly. Before I get to (Jaylen) Waddle, I’d also like to commend the collective training staffs – both ours and the Texans’ and the doctors involved for handling a situation as they did. It was imperative for him. So with regard to Waddle, not major, not surgery-related; but in question for this week, kind of day-to-day on knee but avoided anything serious.”
(When you get a report like that this morning, an encouraging report, you just never know what could happen overnight. And just kind of, is it a little bit more, kind of taking a deep breath when you get each report comes out encouraging on WR Grant DuBose, obviously?) – “Absolutely. I think every step you’re hopeful to be encouraged, so it was good to be able to express that to his teammates.”
(Have you talked to him today?) – “I haven’t talked to him directly. I think he was resting when I got my call in there, so I didn’t catch him but look forward to.”
(Was there any bit of a restless night just waiting to hear for the next update? I mean was it, for all different reasons I guess, but that being primary?) – “Yeah, you could say that.”
(Obviously football is fun and it’s a business but just seems like every time something like that happens, the emotions for yourself, the team, just talk about the emotional aspect that you and the team had to go through to endure something like that again?) – “It’s something that I think the only way you get through something like that is with your teammates. I think we needed each other at that time, and you also have in the back of your mind, knowing Grant (DuBose) and what would make him proud and just the human being that he is, so you’re trying to do right by him and the team and the situation. There’s no really right answer, ultimately. I said last night, you have to kind of lean on the factors of your responsibilities to a lot of different people. But I thought the – his injury was right after a touchdown that defense got off the field and it was a momentum shift, the special teams fake punt, and then to have that touchdown to go up two scores, it was that drive that Grant got injured. So for the collective response and to be able to, through two phases, be able to get a touchdown was one of the positives of an overall, I would say, negative night.”
(You said you were going to hold off on LB Bradley Chubb a week, you had said that was likely. Do you think this week is likely? You still could wait even beyond. Are there still things you need to see before deciding on Sunday for this week?) – “I think the process, as we kind of laid it out at the end of last week, it hasn’t changed in terms of you go through practice fully communicating before and after, have an organized plan and then see where that leaves you through conversation at the end of the week. So that will be something that we will have on the forefront of our minds but won’t be decided until the end of the week.”
(On the three interceptions, QB Tua Tagovailoa was targeting WR Tyreek Hill. After watching the film, was there any recurring theme or disconnect between the two?) – “You want the good news or the bad news?”
(Bad news first.) – “The bad news first is that they were in fact three interceptions. That’s the bad news. The good news is both Tyreek (Hill) and Tua (Tagovailoa) have been very accountable, and both say it’s their fault. That’s what you want. It’s the second-best to not having the discussion at all because it didn’t happen, but I think it’s very important as you move forward within the NFL season to prepare for the next opponent that guys, your whole locker room, is pointing the thumb, not the finger – that saying. And the best way to ensure that is your captains are handling themselves that way. I think, I hear both of them, the things that they could have done and I think that’s a – I can let them argue over that responsibility because at the end of the day, the responsibility of the ball goes to everybody and the only way that you’re going to make sure that, that mistake or those mistakes don’t happen again, is if you have accountability to have standards of play that don’t allow for that. So I was happy with their response to the situation because what you don’t want are people talking about what the other person could do, because they’re not the other person, that doesn’t help what we’re trying to do.”
(I guess the most perplexing thing this season, at least to me, is running game going from first in the league in yards per carry to 31st this year – 5.0 [yards per carry] to 3.9 [yards per carry]. Is RB De’Von Achane still the same player he was last year? He’s gone from 7.8 [yards per carry] to 3.0 [yards per carry] as well. Is the trouble in the running game the last five weeks mostly the result of blocking, that isn’t up to the standard?) – “I think first and foremost, the style of play and kind of what defensive presentations for other games, I’ve been very candid about. I think there’s a couple plays here or there that would dictate different outcomes as well as sometimes people are playing the run more than the pass, which is what we kind of came into around the Jets week. But this game, I thought our ability to execute looks that are advantageous for us to run, it was one of the factors that you can say the turnovers were the reason we lost. You could say the run game was the reason we lost. You could say a given up fake punt that turned into a touchdown. You could say that was the reason for the loss. All things, all of those things would be true, but it’s any one of those things. I think this particular game, I don’t think was up to the standard, regardless of whoever’s in there. I think everyone’s very, very aware after today’s meetings that that is not anything we want Miami Dolphin football to look like. I think our competitors in the running back room want to do better with the looks that are given, but last night, I didn’t think that they were really given a – their yards per carry doesn’t do them justice. I thought our blocking wasn’t good enough so then the focus is specifically on this week and how to improve that and anything beyond that is conversation, hyperbole or whatever, but we need to get it better fast because the same problem will present itself if we allow it to this week against the 49ers.”
(You said yesterday that you wanted the team to kind of remember how the loss felt. They’ve had a chance to stew on it for about 24 hours. What’s the team’s mood and what’s the motivation going forward?) – “The team’s mood is – there’s a reason behind my belief in the individuals and the collective. There’s a competitive edge that when you really look at it, we had another game, another example of a huge improvement in one phase. I thought defensively, forcing five three-and-outs I think it was and the points they did give up, there were several situations where they made a four-point play – Kader (Kohou) did on a PBU before half – and then you’re trying to get a stop after that fake punt. But overall, significant improvement from week to week in one phase, and then the lack of complementary football, that to me is what this game will be remembered for by our team, just because you go one month or four games without turning the ball over and then you do it four times in one game. I think overall guys have to hone in on their responsibilities and know why offensively they’ve been feeling pretty good about their production because we’ve been very mindful off the football. And once you lose sight of that and you end up wasting a great outing by another phase, and it’s just happened too many times. I think you can point to all of our victories and every single one of them you have at least a half and sometimes beyond that of truly complementary football. I think back to that New England Patriots game, the second quarter where the score just flipped when you felt the power of all three phases, and understanding that, I think it gives – we have a locker room that’s very hungry to do right by their jobs and do right by the team. That means let’s produce a three-phase output that we’re happy with, not just one week but you have to do it for consecutive weeks if you want to reach all those goals that we do not – we’re very over the top with being transparent our belief in each other and what we expect out of the season. In that journey to produce something closer to our expectations, we have to do right by this football team, organization and the fan base by having games where our three phases are the reason why we’re winning the game, not two or one of them.”
(Just to wrap up one of the flurry of roster moves on Saturday. With QB Skylar Thompson, would you like to – I know you needed a roster spot, would you like to invest more time in him? Might you claim him for your practice squad if he goes through waivers unclaimed?) – “We’ve talked about this discussion and it’s based upon the rest of the roster as well, but if he clears waivers, that’s something we’re interested in and we’ve considered. So that’s something that we’re looking into but we have to wait the facilitation of this day.”
Kader Kohou – December 16, 2024
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Monday, December 16, 2024
CB Kader Kohou
(I wanted to ask how you thought the secondary played yesterday. Obviously there was the two touchdowns, but that was really short field situations. How do you think you guys rebounded from the game against the Jets?) – “I feel like as a coaching staff and players we came in the room and tried to talk about the things we didn’t do good against the Jets, and I felt like we took a step forward. Obviously, there was some plays that we wanted back but I feel like overall, we played a decent game.”
(We all saw the update on WR Grant DuBose today. What did it mean for you guys to see some positive news there?) – “I mean Grant (DuBose) hasn’t been here for long, but he’s been a great friend since he’s been here and seeing him like that on that field was kind of – it hurt, but seeing that message this morning, seeing that he’s moving in a positive direction, it was like a blessing.”
(Has anyone talked to him? Has anyone reached out to him?) – “Not that I know of, no.”
(As a competitor, obviously football we know is a dangerous sport, but that’s the part none of us want to see. What was the emotion like for you and the rest of the team just seeing one of your boys down like that?) – “I think in that moment we forget the football aspect of it and we just were praying for him to get better. His family was at home watching, we’re just praying for them and hoping everything went smooth.”
(What’s the motivation, now? As the season, with three games left, what’s the motivation now for this year?) – “Playoffs.”
(Regardless, obviously the playoff chances took a big hit, just elaborate on this question. What do you guys do from here? I know you guys have to go out there and play the last three games, like anything, but you only can control what you can control. You guys need a lot of help, how do you guys approach all that?) – “Like we approached every game before that. Even if today they told us that we had zero chance to play in the playoffs, I feel like we’ve been working for this damn near our whole life. Some of us have been playing football since we were four just to get that moment. I don’t think you can take anything away from it. You just have to go out there and play a football game. There’s an opponent across from us that’s trying to beat us, so we don’t want to go out there and put anything bad on film. Like being competitors, playoffs or not, you still got to go out there and play football.”
(I wanted to ask you about the gift that LB Anthony Walker Jr. gave the whole locker room. What did that mean to you to see your high school?) – “Man, that brought back memories, a lot. I was really appreciative of that. I was in the sauna when they got it, so I just walked out and it was boxes, and I opened it with my jersey, kind of just took me back. A lot of memories and stuff like that. That was like probably one of the best gifts I had gotten in a while.”
(When was the last time you saw or put on your high school jersey or anything from your high school, before that?) – “My senior year, first round of playoffs. That was the last time, so yeah, that brought back a lot of memories.”
(What’s your favorite memory from those high school days?) – “Stuff I can’t talk about. (laughter)”
(With the jersey on, favorite memory with the jersey on?) – “With the jersey, it was like our first game my senior year, we played De La Salle and knowing them, they had their history of winning all those games and they were kind of like on the back end of them being undefeated and stuff like that, but they were still a good team, and it was like Cali against Texas and before the game there was a lot of lightning delays. So we held out like three times and we ended up going out there and winning that game, so that’s probably my biggest memory from high school.”
De’Von Achane – December 16, 2024
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Monday, December 16, 2024
RB De’Von Achane
(There was a very encouraging report today put out by the team on your teammate, on WR Grant DuBose. Just what’s the night been like for you guys putting aside football stuff, what has this been like for you guys?) – “We’re just thankful that he was safe, that he making it out, he was able to get moving in all his body parts and just praying for him. You don’t want to see one of your teammates down like that, so we’re just keeping him in our prayers, just making sure he’s good.”
(It’s a time where you have to separate anything that’s going on, on the field from the sport and the personal thing that happened. How difficult has that been, dealing with that the last 24 hours?) – “Of course it’s difficult because he’s one of our teammates, one of our brothers and like you said, we just thought of it as like, of course, if he was here he would want us to keep playing for him. So like you said unfortunately we still were in the game so we had to finish the game and think about him after the game and after the game we found out he was good.”
(Yesterday we saw you chase down a defender off the interception. You could just see how much you wanted that game. How tough was it to stomach overnight the result of what happened?) – “Each game is tough when you lose. Like you said, I’m a competitor, so me going to stop a touchdown, I feel like it’s big because I feel like our defense was playing good and them holding them to three points changed the game a lot. As you could see, we still had the ball at the end of the game and us scoring and going for two would’ve been a tied game. So that changed just from them scoring a touchdown would have been a two (possession) series.”
(Obviously you only can control what you can control, but the fact that now your playoff chances are more in jeopardy, how is the team’s mindset going forward?) – “It’s still our same mindset. We take each game one at a time and like you said, we’re grown men. We’re playing the game that we love so we’re going to play each game at 110 percent. It ain’t like, okay, our playoff chances are down a little bit, but we’ve still got a game to play. It ain’t like our season is over. We’ve still got three or four more games so we’re going to go out and play each one like it’s our last.”
(On a lighter note, we saw the gift that LB Anthony Walker Jr. gave the whole locker room. How cool was it to see your high school jersey again?) – “That was cool. He just got here. For him to even think of that and I know he had to go through a lot to get everybody’s school, their jersey number; so just him being that thoughtful, it was pretty big. It was pretty good for this team.”
(When was the last time you saw your high school jersey or put it on?) – “Before that? It’s been a minute, probably when I was in high school, for real. Going back – college, I’ll say when I was in college because I went to a few games.”
(To go more in depth into that, though. When you guys are professional football players, it’s hard to buy for you guys because you guys are a whole different tax bracket. So for him to take that thought to get that for you, just talk about the significance of that part of it.) – “I feel like that’s really what it is. Just like you said, we’re all NFL players. We all can buy, you know, but it’s always the thought that counts. You never know what you might need till somebody gets it for you and as you could see, we were all excited. Him doing that, just the thought of it, like you said, it brought a lot of joy to the locker room because he didn’t have to do that. Nobody has to, but just him going out of his way to do that for us, it meant a lot to us.”
Mike McDaniel – December 15, 2024 (Postgame)
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MIAMI DOLPHINS QUOTES
Sunday, December 15, 2024
Postgame – Houston
Transcribed by the Houston Texans
Head Coach Mike McDaniel
(On WR Grant Dubose injury.) – “So far there has been some positive feedback related to some head and neck imaging. He will stay here overnight, and we will find out more tomorrow.”
(On the turnovers committed in Today’s game.) – “I think it’s easy to just attribute it to the last person that touched the ball. I think there was a compounding situation. Everybody had a hand in it, whether it was protection, or there were a couple times that we’ve been better as of late being exactly where we need to be. That was the biggest thing is to play the style we do and play with some anticipation. We have to have total connectivity from the unit. It’s just not good enough. Outside of a 3 percent chance, you’re not going to win games with four turnovers. It was very disappointing in that regard. We did a good job of not turning it over since LA, and as a result, we’ve been in position to win football games. I thought the defensive effort was tremendous, which is a reason it was a one-score game. Yeah, it’s unfortunate for a lot of guys. It was a hard-fought loss by our team.”
(On his message to the team with three games remaining in the regular season.) – “I think that’s something that will be the tonality that will capture tomorrow. My message to the team was not to run from how this feels. It’s terrible. It was a game that we thought we were ready to go win, and we weren’t, and so we’ll approach that tomorrow. What I do know is we had a team that fought tooth and nail until the very end. We have a team that loves football, that’s very prideful, and so there’s three games left with paid attendance, and we’ll turn to that page tomorrow. Right now, I think guys are still trying to absorb the outcome.”
(On performance of WR Tyreek Hill and how he was being covered against CB Derek Stingley Jr.) – “I think there are times that next gen stat doesn’t account for an outside release runoff versus cover two, and overall I thought he was winning at the line of scrimmage, and that’s a really good corner. Hats off to him. That was important down to the wire, where I thought that Tyreek [Hill] won at the line of scrimmage on that 1st down, that last pick, and we didn’t connect the way it usually goes down. He was competing. I think he had the big 3rd down reception in a tight window, took some hits, but I’ll have to look at the tape to get more expansive. But he was winning on the line of scrimmage, and we’ll take a look at the tape and see how we can get our production better.”
(On the final interception in the game.) – “You know, live, you have a vision of how it’s completed. I was looking at the line of scrimmage to watch his feet because we caught man, and I’ll have to take a closer look whether or not either party could have done a better job because generally that’s the way those things work. When we have down-the-field throws and they’re versus man coverage, you need the receiver to win at the right time and then you need the right ball placement. I’ll take a look at that. I just know they didn’t connect, and that’s something if you would have said before the game that the game was going to come down to, our expectation is to make that play. A lot of tape to go through as we put this game to bed.”
(On the route ran by WR Tyreek Hill on the final interception in the game.) – “You know, I think the way I handled those type of situations, specifically that one where it’s a floating zone player, is I’m just over the top making sure that everything is connected and we’re doing what we know to do because for me to see that without watching the tape, I can’t take the words back. We’ll take a look. I just know it wasn’t our expected result specifically in that coverage. Who should have seen it, should have Tyreek adjusted his route, I’ll take a look at that tonight on that plane.”
(On getting the team refocused after WR Grant Dubose’s injury.) – “There’s no real formula. It’s always difficult. I think it’s difficult for both teams in those scenarios. There’s nothing I can say. You have a lot of prideful guys that are trying to go back to work, and I think that motivated by just knowing Grant [Dubose] and how he’d want us to finish the game. I think it’s unfortunately something that you have to go through once in a while in the game. It’s not easy. Our hearts, our thoughts and prayers are with him.”
(On what goes through his mind when players get injured.) – “I’m in the moment with the player, and then when the game starts I’ve got a lot of people counting on me to make sound decisions, so I don’t really have a choice in the matter. As I look at it, that’s one for me specifically that has never or will never be easy, but it’s not hard for me to recognize how many people are depending on me to do my job, as well. I don’t really give myself the option.”
(On performance of OL Patrick Paul and OL Jackson Carman.) – “I think they competed. There were some good plays for sure. I thought overall there was a lot of good snaps in the pass game from a protection standpoint and then a lot of snaps that guys were trying to be too perfect. We had situations where we put ourselves behind the 8-ball and the Texans had a really good game plan off our 2nd and long, and it was hard for us to overcome those penalties which cost us points, as well. The biggest thing is the learning curve from the whole O-line to when you’re getting a bunch of three-man rushes at times, that they have to know when to let go and not hold and hurt the team. It wasn’t too big for them, but I’ll have to check the tape to see exactly how I felt about their performance overall. They were pros and knew exactly what to do and how to do it, and we’ll see how they executed it on tape.”
(On the fake punt and how it changed the game.) – “It was a huge game changer. We were anticipating that situation, so we had the appropriate call, and I’ll have to take a look at the execution of it because I was surprised it was the punt return scheme that we want in that situation to defend against that specific play. I’ll have to see how that unfolded because we were very aware pre-snap, and that was frustrating, when you’re bringing awareness to a possibility, and you lose on that possibility.”
(On WR Jaylen Waddle injury update.) – “He was super frustrated. I don’t really have much after that. He was on the sidelines cheering his teammates on, so that was good for me to see. But we’ll get some more information tomorrow for that.”
-DOLPHINS-
