Chad O’Shea – May 9, 2019
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Thursday, May 9, 2019
Offensive Coordinator Chad O’Shea
(As far as the QB Josh Rosen acquisition goes, what was your role in helping Head Coach Brian Flores and General Manager Chris Grier come to this move and how you guys move forward with this?) – “Our role as a coaching staff is to evaluate everyone through the entire process. There are other positons, obviously, that we evaluated through the process. Josh Rosen and the quarterback position was one of many that we went through. The staff did a great job of evaluating the players we feel like can come help our football team and can contribute. Not only at the quarterback positon, but there was many other positions that our guys were heavily involved in that did a great job. We spent a lot of time and a lot of work in acquiring players that we think can help our team.”
(What excites you about getting a guy in QB Josh Rosen who already has a year of experience and is still super young. What excites you about a type of guy like that at the quarterback position?) – “I think, again, at all positions, whenever you can acquire a player that has talent and some ability, that it’s encouraging for all of us. That’s our job as coaches. Our personnel department has done a great job of putting together a roster that’s going to be competitive. I think it’s important to add competition to the roster. The quarterback position is just one of many that we’ve been fortunate to add competition (to). I think competition is going to bring the best out of this football team. I certainly think our personnel department led by Chris Grier has done a wonderful job of giving us the opportunity as a coaching staff to have a very competitive spring.”
(How much does getting the right quarterback accelerate the whole process of this offense coming together?) – “I think that there are a lot of positions on this offense that are very important. Obviously, the quarterback position is an important part of it, but there are certainly other positons that are equally important. They really are. That’s what I think is great about our roster right now is that I think we have competition. I think we have competition at the quarterback spot. That’s a spot that you really have a good group of guys right now. The veteran – Ryan Fitzpatrick – I can’t say enough about Ryan and what he’s done. He’s come in our building and he’s provided great leadership. He’s obviously provided a veteran presence and he has certainly embraced everything we’ve asked him to do. He’s also embraced the competition at the positon just as all of the other quarterbacks have done. I think between Jake (Rudock), Josh and Ryan, they’ve really done everything we’ve asked them to do. They’ve worked hard. Their goal is to improve every day and try to help this team win.”
(But how much does getting the right quarterback accelerate…?) – “I think the quarterback is an important part of it, but I don’t want to say that the other positions aren’t as important. They are. And there are a lot of positions right now on our roster that have a lot of competition. Certainly the quarterback position, we were fortunate to add a player recently in Josh that adds competition. I think that, again, any time you can add competition to the team, that’s the goal.”
(How do you go about managing the quarterback competition situation differently than an undisputed incumbent starter?) – “I think that whenever you have a competitive situation at any position, what’s going to speak for itself is their performance on the field. They’ll basically get what they earn and that’s true of our entire roster. We always tell the players that what your role is, is going to be based off of what you do on the practice field and how you perform. That’s true of the quarterback position, too. Again, this is a very competitive situation in that we have options at the positon. We have three guys in the room that are working very hard. We’re very pleased with their work ethic. We’re very pleased with their overall attitude and what they brought this spring and we’re excited to see them this spring.”
(Before the trade, did you meet QB Josh Rosen beforehand and who were some people or coaches that you may have spoken to?) – “Whenever we have an interest in a player – and obviously we didn’t have any contact prior to him being here – whenever there’s a player that we’re involved in, it’s an evaluation. We try to do our homework and reach out to as many people as we might have mutual contacts with and relationships and try to be as thorough as we can in the evaluation process. Again, that’s true of any draft pick, that’s true of anybody in free agency, not just the Josh Rosen satiation. But I think we’re all fortunate to have relationships in this league of people that we trust, who we can lean on, to provide us information on players throughout the draft process or the free agency process. I think that that’s helpful in our evaluation. And again, our personnel department has done a great job of being very thorough in everything they’ve done since we’ve been here as a coaching staff.”
(Was there anything in particular or a number of factors that you heard from other people that made you feel comfortable with pursuing QB Josh Rosen and having him in this role?) – “I think that there’s … There’s a number of factors, again, involved in the evaluation of every player that we currently have on our roster, especially just the ones we just acquired. It’s a process that you have the be thorough, detailed, and that why again we’re fortunate enough to have the personnel department led by Chris (Grier) and they’ve done a great job of really giving us some players on this roster that it’s going to be a very competitive team at a lot of positions.”
(What did you see specifically in QB Josh Rosen throughout that evaluation process that you thought “Man, we can work with this?”) – “Josh definitely brings some strengths. He is a player that’s played in this league already one year. I think that anytime you can acquire a player that has ability at any positon and has played in the league, and as young as he is, I think that’s very attractive to us. Josh is certainly within a short period of time that we’ve had to work with him, he’s come in and really worked hard. He’s tried to learn the offense as much as he can. He’s done a good job in that area. He’s got a long way to go as do our players as we start our spring practice. We have a long way to go. I think the goal for him is to work hard, put the team first and try to improve every day. (That is) no different than any of our other players.”
(You’re responsible for the entire offense, but how hands on are you going to be with the quarterbacks?) – “We’re very fortunate. We have a very good coaching staff. We have a couple guys working with the quarterbacks I think are really doing a great job and we’re very fortunate to have here in (Assistant Head Coach/Quarterbacks Coach) Jim Caldwell and (Assistant Quarterbacks Coach) Jerry Schuplinski. Those two work directly with Josh (Rosen) on a daily basis. They spend the allotted time we can spend with them; they spend (time) with him as much as they can and I can’t say enough about their work in this area with this particular position. They’ve done a great job. Again, I’m very fortunate as the offensive coordinator to have a great staff and those two guys are doing a great job working with Ryan (Fitzpatrick), Jake (Rudock) and Josh (Rosen).”
(Can I take you back in time a little bit? Your father was a trainer at the University of Miami. You were a kid playing football in the Orange Bowl parking lot?) – “Yeah, you got it.”
(How old were you then? What do you remember about that?) – “I never missed a game. From 1979 through the 1984 season, I didn’t miss a home game at the Orange Bowl. My dad was the athletic trainer there for Coach (Howard) Schnellenberger and Jimmy Johnson for one year in 1984. I have very great memories of being there on game day in the Orange Bowl.”
(Were you playing pickup games in the parking lot?) – “Oh yeah. On the grass parking lot as we all know it at the old Orange Bowl.”
(How many kids?) – “It was as many kids as we had on the coaching staff at the time. Clay Helton was one of them. He’s now the head coach at USC. His father was on staff at the time. I have a lot of great memories from those days. It was really a great memory. I had an opportunity to go out to the Marlins game recently here and just to be there where the Orange Bowl was, was really a neat experience. I have great memories of this city and great memories of the University of Miami and Coach Schnellenberger.”
(How old were you then?) – “I was 7 to 12.”
(What were your dreams then?) – “The dream was to be the quarterback at the University of Miami and play for Coach Schnellenberger. (laughter) But I only grew as tall as 5-foot-11 and 3/4 (of an inch so) I went another path. I have a lot of respect for the University of Miami. I have a lot of respect for Miami. I obviously have great, great memories of the Orange Bowl and great memories of the great players that got that program started. I was fortunate to be a kid growing up at a time where I could wear a Jim Kelly jersey, a (Bernie) Kosar jersey and a (Vinny) Testaverde jersey all at once. That, to me, is pretty special.”
(It’s strange how your life has evolved and you’re back here now.) – “It is. I’ve been very fortunate to be back.”
(When you have a veteran guy or a second-year guy, how much does the offense change depending on which guy is there?) – “I think that the good thing about this offense that we’ve tried to put in place is it has flexibility and it’s always going to try to play to the strengths of the player. I think that obviously the quarterback positon is as important as anybody in the offense as far as their strengths and how they fit within the offense. I think flexibility in the system has really been helpful to us and is allowing us to identify what our team does best. Certainly, we have three quarterbacks on the roster that I feel like all have strengths and it’s going to be competitive. But yeah, it definitely has a lot to do with the offense and the offense has a lot to do with the quarterback.”
(I was trying to think of similarities between QB Ryan Fitzpatrick’s skillset and QB Josh Rosen’s skillset. I’m not a football coach, so you tell me if this is fair: ability to feel some pressure and move within the pocket to avoid a sack or pressure, is that fair? Can you tell me about if you agree with that?) – “Speaking of Ryan, I think that Ryan has been a player in this league that has been respected and one of the areas he’s respected in is his ability to play well within the pocket. I think that’s something that is important for a quarterback is his ability to play within the pocket. Ryan certainly does a lot of things really well. (He is) super intelligent, but his movement in the pocket and what he can accomplish there and having the courage to stand up when the rush is near. He certainly has done that throughout his career and that’s one of the things we’re excited about (with) Ryan among other things we’re excited about (with) Ryan.”
(I made a joke on Twitter about how I’d like to see QB Ryan Fitzpatrick, QB Josh Rosen and QB Jake Rudock on Jeopardy. It’s a smart group.) – “I would say this is a very intelligent quarterback room, one of which we’re very fortunate to have. I think that intelligence is obviously very important to the positon. When you can have three guys that are as smart as they are, I think it really allows you to have flexibility in the offense and allows you to function and really utilize the strengths of the other positons because your quarterback can function mentally.”
(You had a future Hall of Famer there in New England in QB Tom Brady, but you also had some other talented guys come through. Was there still an element of competition in practices at the quarterback position that you hope to bring here?) – “I truly believe that one of the things we’re really trying to build here is competition and I feel like that we have done that at a lot of positions. Certainly, this is a competitive camp this spring. I really believe that and I look forward to watching. I really do.”
(In New England, I guess there wasn’t much competition as that positon – the quarterback position. What do you look at, at quarterback positon? What stands out to you to say “This is going to be my guy?”) – “I think the first thing is a leader. You want someone that they see as their leader. You want somebody to be the ambassador of your program, to be your flag bearer. Basically somebody that you trust to carry on the message of what your vision is from ‘Coach Flo’ (Brian Flores), from the offensive staff, through the team. So, I think that leadership is very important. I think, obviously, the ability to make good decisions and we stress ball security at all positons, not just the quarterback position. But one of our number one goals is to have good ball security. I think that fundamentals is very important to this position. I think being fundamentally sound and then of course having the ability to put that with the leadership and being fundamentally sound and make good decisions is something that is very necessary.”
(When you watched QB Josh Rosen play last year, what silver-linings did you see in what his struggles were that gave you encouragement?) – “I was encouraged watching him on tape, because I think he dealt with some adversity along the way, which I think all players are going to go through. I think it’s very important that we have players on our roster that can deal with adversity and have mental toughness to push through that. That’s something that we’re evaluating at the quarterback positon right now is where our mental toughness is. I think that we have some guys in the room that I think are going to have some mental toughness, I really do. Obviously, Ryan (Fitzpatrick) has had a lot through his career. He’s dealt with a lot of adversity through his career. It says a lot about him. In the short period of time that Josh has had in the NFL, I think that he’s dealt with some adversity here well and he’ll continue to have to do that to be successful.”
(Did you have a chance to visit with QB Josh Rosen coming out in the pre-draft process or was that not really on your radar?) – “There’s been so many guys we’ve visited with. I don’t want to speak for past organizations or past evaluations or relationships we might’ve had at other places, so I don’t want to speak for that. But I can say that I had an opportunity once he came in here to work with him in the last couple weeks and it’s been a very favorable impression so far and I can’t wait to work with him here moving forward.”
(There has been a little bit made about QB Josh Rosen wanting to know why things are done. How do you, in your experience, deal with players who want to know why versus guys who may just be…?) – “Great question. I think it’s something that’s important. I think players should want to know why. That’s something that we encourage our players as they learn our offense to learn the whys. If they’re really not inquisitive about the whys, then they’re never really conceptually going to understand the offense. I think that Josh is highly intelligent just like Ryan (Fitzpatrick) and Jake (Rudock) are in our quarterback room. Having smart guys in the quarterback room is a good thing. I think those guys aren’t afraid to ask why and we’re not afraid to answer.”
(What type of play-caller are you going to be?) – “I’m going to do whatever is best for the football team on that week. I really mean that. I think we’re going to be flexible enough to be multiple in the offense and always to utilize our player’s strengths. What kind of play-caller am I? I’m basically going to call the plays that I think puts us in the best positon to win and utilize the strengths of our players. Certainly, we’re very encouraged right now with a lot of strengths of our players and they’ve worked really hard here this spring and I’m looking forward to working with them this spring.”
