Frank Smith – September 27, 2024
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Friday, September 27, 2024
Offensive Coordinator Frank Smith
(I know obviously so much of game planning is about exposing weaknesses and the opponent, but with that in mind, do you and Head Coach Mike McDaniel feel like you generally need to get the ball in the hands of WR Tyreek Hill and WR Jaylen Waddle more than you have the last two weeks?) – “I think ultimately, we’re always trying to get our guys involved every week. Their ability to make plays, obviously, is the reason why we’re very successful. Each week defenses present different challenges, and it’s our job to make sure we’re putting the guys in the right spot to maximize the opportunities with what the defense is trying to present for us. So I think as we’re looking at it right now, there’s different things that we’re seeing that we’re really incorporating that into our attack. The great thing about Tyreek (Hill) and (Jaylen) Waddle, like the rest of the guys, they just want to make sure that we’re doing what’s best for us to win and whatever is necessary is what they’ll do.”
(WR Tyreek Hill mentioned that he’s not at the point of his career where he feels he needs to demand the ball. I’m guessing – what have you seen from his demeanor or the way he has responded in game the last couple of weeks?) – “I think overall, we’re genuinely frustrated for where we’re at and how we’re executing as a group, but everyone’s focus is on getting better and knowing that it’s a long season and how you start isn’t how you finish and each week presents its own challenges. He’s been great, and in the course of a game, all the guys are competitors and they want to be part of the reason why we’re successful. I think he has been great, and like all guys, we’re going back to work and working on the things that we can improve to make sure that we have a better outcome this weekend.”
(Sticking with that theme though, I could see where you don’t want guys screaming up a storm on the sideline, pouting that they’re not getting the ball. On the other hand, he is WR Tyreek Hill, so is there something to be gained maybe by him reminding the quarterback, “Hey, I need the ball?”) – “I don’t necessarily know – in all forms of communication, whatever relationship it is, you don’t necessarily have to scream to be heard. However we communicate is the most important thing, but we’re all aware – we all collectively want to make sure that we’re doing the best things that we can to make sure we’re successful this weekend. So making sure that we get all of our guys involved is the most important thing we’re looking at each week.”
(Does QB Tyler Huntley have like an offensive assistant or something who has been like assigned to help him do flashcards? Take me behind the scenes when you’re trying to catch up real fast, is there something unique that you do?) – “I think whenever guys come in that aren’t with us through training camp, we use our position assistants whether it’s – for all positions. We try to get guys up to speed, meet extra, have extra walkthroughs and time throughout the week. Not necessarily the quarterback position but all positions, we’re behind the scenes making sure that they’re getting caught up with terminology or, ‘Hey, this is what we do here. This is how it’s read.’ Sometimes things are read different for quarterbacks, but offensive linemen, same thing. We bring guys up and we use our position assistants while we’re focusing on the guys that are here present for the game. We try and use the whole staff to make sure that we’re getting guys up to speed and then as guys move in the roster that way so it’s not like you’re not getting any information – we try and use our whole staff like you use a whole team. Some guys are contributing in different ways and that’s how we try and make sure we use our staff appropriately.”
(When you have two quarterbacks that are fresh to the team – I mean one has an understanding of the offense because he’s been in systems that are similar, but the other one doesn’t. How do you make it palpable to retain all the information or do you have to dumb down the offense to…?) – “I don’t necessarily know if it’s like you dumb down, but you’re trying to do what your players do well and put them in positions to be successful. So think that all positions, we’re asking guys to do what they’re comfortable in doing and what they understand doing and they understand what the concept provides. I think that comes down to when we get guys here, part of our process to make sure they understand as they’re coming through it – it’s not like you’re here for two weeks and you’re just kind of learning on your own. We’re making sure we’re always bringing the process along so guys understand, so that way when guys are up, we’re executing what we do well and we can understand there are different parts of our offense, different think concepts that we can use to attack the defense. I think our driving force here is we always want to put our guys in positions to be successful for what they can do well.”
(With QB Tyler Huntley, in terms of his athletic ability and scrambling ability, do you have to pull out some of those RG3-esque plays that you’ve had in this offense for a while?) – “I think it’s more of each week when you’re using the guys, you’re going, OK, what’s the defense? All right, how do they play defense? How do they try and work all three levels of it? How’s the attack going to be approached and how do we create conflict inside of it? So whenever you’re looking at – the starting point is always the defense, and not necessarily you’re thinking of us. You’re going, OK, who are they and how do they operate? How can we then attack it with the guys we have? That’s our starting point. Even last year, we always – it’s been our approach our whole time here. We start with the defense, how they want to deploy and play coverage, how do they want to stop the run, how do they accept force, how do they do their different things, and then we then build from there. That’s kind of our driving force, not necessarily, ‘Hey, we need to do this because of this.’ It’s this – what’s the defense, how do we create conflict and that’s how we build.”
(A quarterback question regarding history versus recency, as it applies specifically to QB Skylar Thompson but also to QB Tyler Huntley and QB Tim Boyle. QB Skylar Thompson, you’ve seen two years’ worth of work; he had maybe three bad quarters, whatever you want to say. How do you balance that in a final judgement of Skylar and moving forward, whether he should get another start? Also with QB Tyler Huntley and QB Tim Boyle, you know their history but you also know their recency here – what weighs more heavily in the decision on who plays or who starts?) – “We take everything in from a collective approach. It’s easy to say poor result, then therefore it is. It’s why? It’s a deeper reason to things, so we’re trying to – I always look at, ‘My knee hurts.’ ‘OK, well what’s wrong? All right, ice and stim and maybe it will go away. Take some pain pills and maybe it will go away.’ Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. ‘Still hurts.’ So now you get looking at it and the doctor says you need to do something deeper, and then therefore that’s the answer you need to go. So for us, we’re looking at, OK, where is some of the things we’ve been doing, why are we having poor performance for not getting the result we want. Is it a player, is it a group, is it all of us? Ultimately, it comes down to all of us executing together for that, but when you look at – quarterbacks always get the magnifying glass, like it is or it isn’t. However, I think we can do better as an offense in general to allow for us to really base a lot of decisions, because right now it’s like with eliminating penalties, eliminating things that we can really improve, I think overall that will really help us as an offense, not just saying, ‘Hey, it’s this or not.’ It’s a lot of things that we need to correct right now.”
(Your first possession after CB Kader Kohou’s interception, the first down it looked like RB De’Von Achane had a hole, but he just slipped. TE Julian Hill had a penalty but it looked like he had a hole and would’ve scored. What does that tell you about the offense? And then I don’t think TE Jonnu Smith was in for that position, is that something you can tell us about also?) – “It’s maximizing opportunities. It’s early in the season so it’s easy to go, when you’re having success, you can say – like last year at this point in the season, it was what could we do wrong? It didn’t seem like many things. But now this season it’s what are you doing right? Well it’s never as good as it seems or as bad as it seems, it’s somewhere in the middle. Normally when you’re talking execution it’s a play here, a play there, a guy here, a guy there, just that cohesiveness being connected and making sure that we’re all executing at the same time. I think that’s the ultimate thing we’re talking about is our collective execution making sure that we’re working together and not trying to do too much in the moment. It’s like play the play, know what the attack is, what’s the defense you’re facing, then your preparation kicks into play. When we have moments where we’re not executing, OK what is it, how do we fix it, what was the issue and then we go through it. Then just making sure we’re asking the guys to do things we do well.”
(When you have a backup quarterback in, when it comes to communicating the play call to that quarterback in a timely fashion – maybe this is more of a Head Coach Mike McDaniel question – what have you guys found as some of the consistencies or inconsistencies of why that isn’t occurring or maybe ways to streamline the process?) – “The challenge of playing on the road obviously is the noise. There’s factors of communication to make sure you’re hearing through the communicator what’s being said – that creates a challenge. Then it’s just making sure we’re all hearing each other. The greatest issue that occurs is, we all have in all facets of our lives, is like are you listening or are you hearing the person? You’ve got to make sure you’re hearing the information necessary and delivering the information necessary. So just making sure in our communication we understand what’s being said and then we’re all working together. It’s not one person; it’s a unit. It’s all offensive players making sure that we’re hearing the concept, we understand what’s being executed. You don’t assume you’re hearing one thing; you make sure you get it heard and communicated with each other. I think that’s been the issue we’ve been having and it’s something we’ve been working on this week, and we’re working to improve on it for Monday night.”
(There were two phantom whistles out there. One on a first down that put you behind the chains on an RB De’Von Achane run, then on a third down you ended up punting. I talked to the players about this yesterday, one player said he thought maybe there was a whistle in the stands. Is this something you guys send to the league and say let’s get this straightened out, or do you say it happened, it’s done and there is nothing the league can do about it?) – “Making sure procedural issues we communicate with the league, but it was a bad deal. It’s just knowing that the ball is being held, like when they set it, the whistle came in late. It just kind of came in at a time where they were like, ‘What was that?’”
(You guys stopped playing?) – “Yeah, because well they set the ball and hit it and then they blew it just a little later than normal. It’s just stuff that it’s like – when you look at the course of a game, one play, one play here, when adversity hits, you can either use it as an excuse, or go OK, let’s get back on schedule. This year it’s like, ‘OK, we’ve had some adversity. Let’s learn from it, let’s not run from it. Let’s know how we can get better as a group, because we’ve got a long year ahead of us.’”
(Is there an extra level of difficulty, or does it compound things when you fall behind a couple of scores with you backup in, in a hostile environment? What does that do to your psyche or the adjustment process when something like that happens?) – “I think it helps remind you to stay deliberate in your approach, be in the moment. The past doesn’t dictate the future, and there is nothing is certain except that right now when things aren’t going well, how can I affect it? It’s not I need to do anything extraordinary, it’s more like of like what is the play, what’s the execution, what do I need to do to be successful. Ultimately for us right now, it’s just making sure we’re all connecting on the same page, we’ve having the communication necessary, and whether it’s good or bad, it’s being in the moment, playing in the moment. Like last year, go to Game 3, what didn’t go right? You score 70, life is good. Now the other side of the coin, it’s now OK – whether it’s going well, you have prosperity or adversity, it’s irrelevant. Right now the most important thing is the moment, and that’s the thing we’re working on right now is making sure we’re maximizing this moment today and all the moments in preparation for Monday.”
