Frank Smith – October 12, 2023
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Thursday, October 12, 2023
Offensive Coordinator Frank Smith
(What dimension do you think WR Chase Claypool gives you that maybe you didn’t have with the roster as it was?) – “I just think that anytime we have a chance to acquire players that can help us in any way, we’re always going to be in the business in doing that. I think that’s what we’re doing right now, the assessment of just seeing where we can use his skillset, where he fits and just assimilate into the offense. I wouldn’t say right now we’re pigeonholing one thing to say, ‘He does this.’ It’s more of right now, getting him up to speed operating with us, so we can be able to fit him where we need to as we go forward with the season.”
(What do you like about WR Chase Claypool’s skillset that you’ve seen on tape?) – “He’s a big, fast wide receiver, good catch radius, blocking skills look up to par – everything you’re looking at from a complete skillset. And then now it will be just teaching him how we operate, because like everything, plays are plays. Players make plays come to life, but through their ability to execute the techniques and fundamentals, that’s what makes it come to life, and that’s where – whenever you acquire someone in the season, they’re missing that offseason of the build through the process that we had. It’s easy to bring someone in right away, but then also it’s OK, they may have taught a route this way, but we teach it this way. They look the same, but yet the variance is a little different. That’s the biggest thing that he’s getting up to speed with is our terminology and what our expectations are. But as far as the skillset, everything looks really good so far.”
(How quickly have you ever seen, other than RB Jeff Wilson Jr. who could read your offense, how quickly have you ever seen a guy come into a program and get it down pat and as Head Coach Mike McDaniel says speak Spanish?) – “In my past, we signed (Darren) Waller off the practice squad and he was playing next week. It’s very doable. It’s all about the relationship between the position coach, the player and understanding it’s just a process to do it. I don’t think there is any limitations as to the timeline, it’s just what volume are you going to require him to be able to carry, what length of the offense do you want to carry. Those are the variables that play in, but especially talking to him, I don’t think there is any limitations physically or mentally. We’ll be excited for the growth for the next foreseeable future.”
(Head Coach Mike McDaniel is really big on being a really good teacher and teaching guys the why and whatnot. In your history of life, are there any notable teachers that stick out to you whether it’s grade school, whether it’s when you were coming up the coaching ranks that taught you that this is the way to pass along information to other people so that they can do their job well?) – “The first one I’d ever had was Gary Westerman, and he was my track coach in high school. And coincidentally he was Alec’s (Ingold) high school coach at Bay Port High School in Green Bay. Explaining the why to what you’re doing and how it’s going to make you better, that’s the only way my college coach Terry Hoeppner spoke. If I’m going to ask you to do anything, this is why. So naturally when we got together and explaining things, that’s the only way things make sense to me. I have to ask question of, ‘Why am I doing this?’ And then once you tell me, got it. Now everything else falls in line. I think as far as all of us, the minute the ‘why’ as opposed to ‘just do what I say,’ well when do most communications break down in all relationships? It’s when you say, ‘Just do what I say because I say it.’ Then when it goes wrong, you don’t know why the intent is. You’re just being told to do something. That’s the really fundamental part of this program, is we teach why we do things. Therefore you can own it, and you can evolve through the process together because we all understand what we’re trying to do.”
(You guys had probably one of the most interesting opening plays I’ve seen. 31 personnel, I think WR Jaylen Waddle came into the backfield and RB De’Von Achane runs for 25 yards. Can you give me the idea of the timing and the why that play in particular?) – “Putting your players in position to give a different look to the defense, also making them have to adjust to us and seeing also what that personnel group provides and running core concepts for us that we can execute together. It really wasn’t one specific reason, it was more of, again, as we had that personnel group other plays, we had two more plays off of it. It’s like what are they going to do and how they are going to react, then through that, what can we do to attack the defense. It was really more of, ‘What do you think they’re going to do if we had this off to him in the opener?’ OK, well I guess get an explosive run. So it’s more of like, for us, using our collection of talent, putting them in the right spots and then seeing how the defense is going to react appropriately. Most of the times, we kind of have an idea of what’s going to happen, and if it doesn’t, why and what’s a complementary play with it.”
(Just following up there, it was intriguing to see all the movements you had, but the timing seemed perfect. I guess for the timing element of that, can you maybe give me an idea of what that looks like for you guys to make that final version look so succinct?) – “Teaching the defense so we understand reactions and what we anticipate. Show it to them on paper, show the clip of the reaction you think you’re going to get, walk through it one time, run it in practice, and then go into a game and then follow your rules and adjust if it’s not what we thought it was going to be. I mean it’s kind of, again, process-driven so you have that concept that we’ve run out of different variants. Now you put in that grouping, and if they understand the defense and they understand the play’s intent, they can handle the variation. Was it a variation that we didn’t inspect? So how do we move and how do we operate? I mean, it starts with back in spring when we teach how do we move and snap points, who’s moving when and why. If you were to put that play in by itself in the season, I think it would be a lot harder as opposed to that’s part of our process of our whole system of why we move to move. It’s because we’re moving for a reaction to the defense in what we anticipate.”
(I’ve got a very football 101 question that got T Terron Armstead excited a couple of weeks ago. Can you explain the significance of the second step for an offensive lineman?) – “Yeah, it’s essentially I’m creating power and I’m transferring power now at the angle that I’ve set with my first. So if I’m not able to get my second step down, I don’t transfer backside power into the block. In all movements, if I’m going to transfer, it’s got to be the second. So that’s the key. That’s the key and the fundamentals of blocking that really aren’t just offensive linemen, it’s all players. When you know the secret to a good second step, you can probably hold the clinic at the Glazier Clinic next year. (laughter)”
(How long does it take a player to understand that concept? Is that like high school or college?) – “It’s simple to talk about the complexities, the variance. You normally are always getting different reactions from the defender. So you’re always learning and you’re banking reps as you go. It’s as simple as, but then OK, what did you do, what was his reaction, and you work through it all. So I think ultimately, it’s an ever-evolving learning process. You talk to all, especially offensive lineman, they’re always talking about ‘Yeah, second step.’ Because really, you’re transferring power into the defender.”
(You guys feature one of the more aggressive offenses in the league. You’re the most productive offense in the league, but you also have a few turnovers this year. Do you think there’s a correlation between aggression and turnovers? And if so, how do you properly calibrate that?) – “I don’t know if it’s really they follow with each other, I think it’s more of just, why do things occur? It’s easy to say, ‘My knee hurts.’ OK, why? OK, well, throw some ice on it and then maybe you’ll feel better. OK, well, my knee hurts still. OK, well, maybe you need to look at it some more, and then they see, OK, well, you need surgery to fix it. So ultimately, when you’re looking at things, you’ve got to look at why and not just kind of gloss over things, because it’s easy to look at something and go, ‘Hey, it’s this.’ Well, what was the root of it? I mean, was it ultimately, when you have a turnover, was it poor fundamentals? Was it a gameplan specific play to the week that maybe our understanding wasn’t as good? Was it playing outside of the progression? There’s many variables that go into it, and that’s ultimately what we’re looking at is making sure how do we ensure we’re minimizing turnovers and it all starts with fundamentals and intent. That’s always what we go back to. It always seems so simple, because I know around here, you guys hear us talk a lot about our process and our fundamentals and technique. But I mean ultimately, that is offensive football. It’s our execution of these simple things collectively to make something come to life. Because if 10 are doing the right thing and one is not, one player I should say, then that’s where you can get off. So ultimately, that’s where like as the quarterback is playing, he’s counting on everyone, guys blocking, guys running routes, timing, distribution. I don’t think it’s ever something as, ‘Hey, we’re aggressive, so this happens.’ It’s more of, ‘OK, why did that happen here?’ Then you get to the bottom of it together.”
(Losing RB De’Von Achane is obviously a big loss, but does it kind of soften the blow knowing that you can go back to what you were doing in Weeks 1 and 2 when you had RB Raheem Mostert and RB Salvon Ahmed at the top of the running backs depth chart? Also with the added incentive you might get RB Jeff Wilson Jr. back?) – “Yeah, I think the nature of the offseason, how we had the room, the way the guys worked and just how really good we felt about it all collectively. Because I mean, when you look to Salvon (Ahmed), in the Houston game, he had two explosive plays that I can just recall off the top of my head. So that group has done an outstanding job of all rising to the occasion together. I think ultimately, as the season goes, if we have one down, the next guy’s up. Eric (Studesville) has done a great job with them, and I think they all understand the intent. We couldn’t be happier just overall with the way the runners go in and just how they’re able to really work with each other, play off each other and accomplish the same thing together.”
(Did RB Jeff Wilson Jr. look to you yesterday like a running back who’s ready to play in a game after four-week layoff?) – “Yes.”
(I’ve heard you and Head Coach Mike McDaniel both talk about knowing defense and defensive players’ roles and knowing what they should do and adjusting to that. I typically think about that as like a quarterback responsibility, but I think you’re speaking to all 11. I’m curious maybe the teaching process of that for maybe your left guard or your tight end or your receiver of knowing the linebacker is supposed to do this, and that’s affects how we run this play?) – “It starts really – if you don’t know your job, you can’t really look past and learn. You have to get to a point at which, I know what I’m doing. Now I know what I’m doing, my intent, now I can see what my defender’s trying to do. It’s always hard and the hardest time is when you’re coming together in Year 1, and you’re trying to learn your system and you’re trying to learn what I’m trying to do, the intent and purpose of this play and the technique you’re asking me to do, the evolution. That’s where it’s constant teaching, because when you can start to understand the defense and what they’re trying to accomplish, where they’re vulnerable, that’s where now the player can play with reaction. Because he’s not thinking about it, he’s reacting to what he’s seeing because his anticipation level is heightened because I know what I’m trying to do. Now my vision is focused on these maybe two or three variables that I’m expecting. That I think, ultimately, is what you’re allowed to do, especially in this second year of the system is now guys have a greater understanding of what we’re doing and they’re really diving into the intent of the defense and how they fit in the concept to attack, whether it’s run or pass.”
(Do you think it’s a correlation that you and San Francisco have the best offenses in the NFL right now? Or just coincidence?) – “I guess we can answer that question at the end of the season. I mean, right now, I don’t know. It’s really cool, but the way they teach is the way we teach, so I can see a correlation. I don’t know if it’s – at the end of the year I guess you could say, ‘Well, maybe.’ But right now, the way they teach their process is similar to the way we teach our process. Yet both of us are built a little different. It’s actually just interesting to really see how it is because it’s a fun process when they’re coming together and you really realize like from spring to now, so many things that you started off going ‘Eh’, and now they’re coming to life in October that are things that I know Mike (McDaniel) talked about early on when they were in San Francisco and things they had to grow through. I guess we’ll see at the end of season, but it’s pretty cool so far.”
(To build on top of that, because I think fans might misconstrue that ‘I guess we’ll find out at the end of the season?) – “Oh, no. It’s just like, I don’t know – it’s October. (laughter) The swings and everything is always – if you lose track of now, and you don’t stay in now and you start looking at all those other things, because in 2011 in New Orleans, we set all these statistical things. We beat Indy 62-7 and then went to St. Louis and lost and it’s like, ‘Why?’ Because if you lose track of now. That’s when the problems come in the league, wherein that team went 8-0 the rest of the year. So it’s like, that direct focus to being present and executing is the No. 1 thing. The greatest thing is we have a bunch of staff that’s all experienced it and players that are hungry to get better today.”
