Mike McDaniel – September 25, 2023
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Monday, September 25, 2023
Head Coach Mike McDaniel
(I was going to ask you on WR Jaylen Waddle and LB Jaelan Phillips – is Jaylen Waddle out of concussion protocol and does Jaelan Phillips’ oblique injury look like it could sideline him for a bit of time?) – “Jaylen Waddle is still in the concussion protocol, but we’ll progress through that and we’re very optimistic in how he’s feeling. Just worry about him getting right and that should take care of itself here soon. And the other Jaelan – Jaelan Phillips is more of a day-to-day situation so he’s doing better than yesterday so hopefully on Wednesday he’ll be doing even better and we’ll see how that progresses on a day-to-day basis.”
(What about OL Connor Williams?) – “Connor Williams is in the same boat as Jaelan Phillips where we’re kind of acquiring more information, getting more feedback from them and can’t plan either way but just kind of considering him day-to-day and that’s pretty much it from him.”
(WR Jaylen Waddle had an oblique during training camp. Is that right? He was out for maybe three weeks. Was that just overly cautious?) – “Yeah, that was overly aggressively cautious in that circumstance to make sure that we could file that away for the season and it was just something we didn’t want at his position to be nagging him all season. So had he not had such a great offseason and had he not been at the spot in this game, we probably wouldn’t have been as cautious totally, but he earned that liberty of making sure that we crossed our T’s and dotted our I’s on that one.”
(I know that after every game you look for the positives, places you could improve and grow from, but when you score 70 in a game and everything just looks so perfect on offense, where do you start when you look back and say, ‘wow, how do we build off of a performance like that?’) – “No, I think it’s more of how, okay, how did you have that performance? One thing that is obvious to myself, to the coaching staff and to the players is that that was earned through deliberate practice, and that you’re not able to have success in the National Football League any other way. So there was plenty of things that we could detail from a technique standpoint. We had a lot of really good results, but that doesn’t mean that from a technique standpoint, you let off the gas. And if you want a feeling, not necessarily that exact feeling, because those are rare to have those opportunities, but if you want a feeling of success that you started to get used to, there’s no shortcuts. So to me, it was the ultimate opportunity because shame on us if we don’t make the most out of each and every opportunity we have on the field because when you show that your capability is to some things that if you’ve been in the sport a long time, all the players and all the coaches hadn’t been a part of a scoring output like that. So you realize that you have a great opportunity each and every game to do some things that people sometimes don’t get an opportunity to do so. I saw it as a perfect storm in that way because I don’t think there’s anybody in the locker room and there’s anybody on the coaching staff that is misrepresenting how their successes on Sunday occurred. That was old school, blood, sweat and tears, so to speak, in terms of preparation and I thought our week of practice prepared us to have that opportunity and then guys made plays in the moment, which is what it’s all about.”
(Every week it seems like we see another evolution of how you use motion and the speed with the motion. Without giving away too much, do you have a number of how many types of motions you have in your offense?) – “No. I mean, there’s multiple jet tempo motions. You’re kind of always problem solving and sometimes those things are given birth by the nature of necessity or certain skill sets that individuals have or different things that affect the defense. I think there’s been motions that we utilized yesterday that were from this offseason, problem solving for some things. But then there was a bunch that we’d employed last year and this year, the only difference is, we’re not having near the pre-snap penalties while we’re doing them. That’s just something that at first, it’s hard for a coach because it’s not clean when you first start doing stuff like that and moving all the time. But when it becomes your norm, guys kind of get uncomfortable now when there isn’t a motion on a play. They’re like, ‘where’s the rest of the play?’ But that takes a total commitment of everyone, including the offensive line, because you have to get used to the different types of snap counts that Tua uses to not only execute some of those motions, but then make sure that the defensive line can’t tee off on snap points, and then have variations of cadence on that, too. So everybody plays a part in it and it’s something that that takes a village to execute.”
(You mentioned the pre-snap element. You guys have drastically improved in the penalty department. I know you mentioned yesterday that was an area for you. Was there a point this offseason that you felt the flow of everything including the motion click whether it be your players or your coaches as far as teaching it all?) – “I knew we stood a fighting chance for what guys are willing to say they want, but you don’t always know if they’re willing to deliver on it. When we started the offseason, the first thing that we showed was just every single one of those penalties to their face in a row. And the fact that all the players didn’t lose interest, that it had a visceral feeling that they wanted to correct and you could see it every time that we operated as an offense, and how focused people were on it, trying to get it right. And it wasn’t like it was a night and day thing. So that’s something that over a three-game span – it is only three games – but I’m very proud of that in terms of there’s not a quick fix to that or it’s not like ‘hey, just don’t do that.’ People really have to look inward and self-assess across the board, those who are teaching it, and those who are executing it, and when you’re just worried about the things that you can control, you can get solutions to very real problems like we are over a three-game span with that stuff.”
(I think you said before that you don’t like guys will lose jobs because of injuries. I think that’s something you’ve said before. With that being said, when a guy goes for a healthy scratch to 200 yards rushing in two weeks, does it change your mindset on how that running back room would look whenever you get RB Jeff Wilson Jr. and RB Salvon Ahmed back?) – “I think it’s a fortunate thing to have. I’ve been on the opposite side of the coin and the way that we utilize our running backs in this offense, there is really the opportunity to have production at that position from more than one, most of the time multiple, players in that position. I think there is a certain aspect of earning more opportunities. And I think when you play really well, you make it hard not to be able to at least incorporate someone in some sort of way. But I think it’s part of our strength, too, is our is our depth of very, very adept talented playmaking running backs. We use so many guys in different ways and I think that can keep teams off balance. It’s a lot easier to prepare when you know exactly what you’re getting. So just on deck is the fabled five running back personnel package and you never know when it’s coming.”
(Two other injuries – WR River Cracraft – could he miss a while with the shoulder and is CB Eli Apple in protocol?) – “Eli (Apple) is not in protocol. And River (Cracraft), I don’t know how long it will be. I think at this point, my immediate reaction, I would be surprised if – it’s definitely not a day-to-day thing. But we’ll continue getting feedback from him and as we get even more test results back, we’ll figure out a timeline for that, but he was playing at a very high level and there’s no doubt that we’ll see him again in the near future. How near is that? I don’t know yet, but when he does, he’ll be ready to go and making plays, as he has been this entire season.”
(And then one other guy – TE Durham Smythe was in the medical tent for a while. TE Julian Hill played a lot of snaps in his first game. Was that at all because Durham finished the game unable to play or you just wanted to see what Julian Hill could do against that opponent?) – “Yeah, the plan wasn’t for him to play that much. The course of the game kind of dictated that a little bit where you saw much less of Durham Smythe and Alec Ingold, for that matter, and got some opportunities for Julian and some guys in 11-personnel for various reasons. That wasn’t the exact plan, but I thought Julian did well with that adjustment and took advantage of some reps that he very much enjoyed. That guy enjoys playing football physically and he was doing his thing on Sunday.”
(TE Durham Smythe is fine?) – “Yeah. I mean, Durham is durable. Like it’s inherent in his name.”
(Obviously only the fourth game of the season, but big picture, you’re facing a team obviously that you know you’re competing for the division, a team that knocked you out last season in the same place. Do those things internally do you think from players to staff make this week different as you prepare for a game like this facing that?) – “They are playing some high-level football themselves and that draws enough of your attention to the different teams from a season ago. I think they’re individually, from a player-to-player perspective, there’s probably some internal grudge matches that go on that are natural to football. But by and large, I have no doubt that our locker room is going to give them their due respect that they’re earning through their play. And you always know that to even be in the conversation of having a win in Orchard Park, you have to be hitting on all cylinders. So our guys will be focused on that because the challenge is awesome and most difficult, which is the way we’d want it, I think.”
(I read about FB Alec Ingold delivering the pregame speech to the guys yesterday in the locker room. I was curious, is that kind of a result of the team being so self-motivated, kind of self-starters for you to put them in that position when they’re kind of the ones doing those types of things?) – “I like to, especially when we’re about to play football, I’ll have my pieces of wisdom, but the most impactful thing is when guys hear from each other, hear from their peers so I ask a lot of the captains in moments like that and it’s not just exclusively before the game. They say the last words to each other the night before the game and pretty much every activity that we have culminates with a team breakdown. So I think guys take very serious the opportunity they have when they’re able to speak to the whole group and we have a bunch of like-minded guys you can really see adrenaline, emotion, just the overall attentiveness of guys really perk up when they’re hearing from their peers and who are able to give much more powerful messages than any coach could deliver in my opinion.”
