Evan Boehm – September 26, 2019
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Thursday, September 26, 2019
C/G Evan Boehm
(You have been called ‘nasty’ and ‘salty.’ Do you like those phrases?) – “I do like those phrases. Under this offense and under this coach – especially ‘Guge’ (Offensive Line Coach Dave DeGuglielmo) – he likes those nasty players that they get after it. I think one person that really helped me out last year with becoming kind of this player or taking steps into becoming that type of player is Matt Slauson. When I was up in Indy with ‘Guge’ last year, Matt was on IR but he was kind of like a second coach. He was in my ear telling me like, ‘hey, watch me do this real quick on film.’ He goes, ‘now, how could you do that in that situation?’ or ‘what could you do better here?’ He just sat me down and helped me and coached me to become a better football player and understanding the schemes but also understanding the times where you can go out there and just let loose.”
(What do you think it is about you that probably made Offensive Line Coach Dave DeGuglielmo say to the team, “hey, we need to trade for this guy?”) – “I got thrown in last year in Indy in Week 6 when (Ryan) Kelly – really Week 8 – when Kelly went down. It was my second week of being there, but Kelly was down that whole first week I was there, and the second day I got there, I was running with the ones. I had to learn everything fast on the run. I think my football intelligence. I think learning the offenses quick, picking up the offenses and just understanding what he wants out of certain players and understanding what he wants out of certain positions because every position is going to be different. Center is totally different than right guard, and right guard and left guard – they’re very similar, but at some points they are different. Tackles are out on their island doing their own thing. I think understanding how to play that guard and center spot really helps me out.”
(How does this line get better? I know you guys have a lot of adversity with the injuries, a lot of people and moving pieces…) – “It’s buying in. It’s buying in and I think it starts with the leadership Danny (Daniel Kilgore) gives, and he hasn’t wavered once. His attitude has always been the same since Day 1 since I’ve been here about getting in there, working your tail off, going and getting your job done and making sure your job gets done right. Like I said, when I got interviewed first when I first got here, I’m here to help this team out. I’m here to help this team win in any way, shape or form. I think if everybody goes back and looks over the last three weeks, we’ve gotten better as an offensive line. We’re buying into ‘Guge’s’ techniques and his terminology and what he wants and what he needs from all of us to become that offensive line. We have to protect Josh (Rosen). We have to protect Ryan (Fitzpatrick) if he’s out there. We have to open up the holes for ‘K.D.’ (Kenyan Drake) and ‘K.B.’ (Kalen Ballage) when they’re in there, and we’ve got to understand that it’s five guys doing one job. That’s pretty much the hardest thing on the field because you’ve got wide receivers running their own routes and yeah, they play off of each other, but you have five dudes playing under one. It’s like a chain: if one is weak, it’s all broke. We’ve all got to buy in and understand what he wants and what he needs to get the ball in the playmaker’s hands fast.”
(So you mentioned guard and center, and I’m presuming you’re training at guard at the moment?) – “Guard and center. I’m doing both.”
(What’s the difference?) – “Just the footwork. One, you’ve got the ball in your hand. You start with the ball. You’re in front of everybody else. Especially in pass pro(tection), trying to get back on the same level with everybody else when you have a head or you have a shade to your left or right and you’re trying to get over there square so you’re all on the same level squared up, that’s tough. It’s a tough job; or when you go into reach on an outside zone or do something on an inside zone, you’re in front of everybody else. You get contacted faster than everybody else, so you have to be better with your footwork. At guard, you’re in a box between the tackle and the center, but you still have to understand the lanes and the angles and the stuff that we have to do to get done in order to help the center out and the tackle out at the same time.”
(How did you feel it went for you when you went into the game?) – “I had fun. It’s always fun getting out there and playing ball. This is a job, but ultimately it’s a game. You love going out there and having fun. I think we played fairly decent as an offensive line for the most part. There are still a lot of corrections that we have to make. There are still a lot of things that we left out there on the table that we saw Monday when we came in. ‘Guge’ is doing a great job and Danny (Kilgore) and even Jesse (Davis), they’re all doing a great job with keeping the young guys up and keeping the young guys going and making sure that they’re still in it. It’s Week 4. We’ve got a lot of games ahead of us. If we keep progressing to become a better offensive line, things could turn around.”
(Did you see the video of the LSU guard who just on a pass block demolished a dude and then knocked him down again?) – “Yeah, that’s unbelievable. That was unbelievable. I think it was a different dude.”
(What did you think when you saw that?) – “That’s an animal. That’s an animal right there. That’s always fun to get. That’s what you look for on offensive line. If you’re an open guy on a pass pro(tection), that’s what you look for and stuff like that. It was cool seeing that. You’ve always got to give the big men some love every once in a while when stuff goes wrong. When ‘stuff’ goes wrong, the finger gets pointed real quick to the five guys up front. When it goes right, we’re the undercover guys. That’s what we signed up for. That’s what we love about the job.”
(I’ve never met you but you seem like such a nice guy. How do you turn into this different person on the field?) – “That’s what my wife asks. (laughter) That’s just my personality. I grew up a coach’s kid. I’ve grown up around football, and I know how to flip a switch, I feel like. I can be in the locker room having fun and joking around. I could be on the sideline talking and having fun, but then you have to understand there’s a time and place and when you step over the white line, the time is now and (you have to be) ready to turn it on.”
(Where does your dad coach?) – “In Kansas City. Lee’s Summit West High School. He’s retired now, but I grew up around it. I just love the game.”
(Were you a ball boy your whole life?) – “I was, yeah. Oh, yeah.”
(How many years did he coach?) – “All in all, I think he coached 32 years, but he was a head coach for 16. He took the high school that he was the head coach at – he was the defensive coordinator for a while, and then at a brand new high school, he was the head coach for the first 16 years. There are three high schools in Lee’s Summit, and he brought the first three state championships to Lee’s Summit.”
(Did you know DE Charles Harris?) – “Funny story because Coach (Andy) Hill was our recruiting coach for Missouri and Coach Hill was talking to my dad one day when he came in for a recruiting trip, and he was like, ‘hey, is there anybody that you’ve seen in the metro that we could take a look at that’s a sleeper that maybe we can take away from somebody else?’ I think Charles was a basketball player mainly in high school so a very raw talent in football. My dad was like, ‘Yo, go check this guy out because we’ve seen him on some film,’ and Coach Hill fell in love with him. We were at Missouri together. I didn’t know Charles in high school. I knew him more when we got to Missouri, but Kansas City kids tend to stick together. It’s cool to be Kansas City kids from Mizzou, and now we’re here together, so it’s awesome.”
(Did the playing time Sunday leave you jumping for you?) – “Oh, yeah. My mouth is watering. I want some more. (laughter)”
