Karl Dorrell – December 3, 2019
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Tuesday, December 3, 2019
Wide Receivers Coach Karl Dorrell
(How surprised are you when WR DeVante Parker just dominates a game the way he did last Sunday?) – “Not surprised. I’ve always had a lot of confidence in DeVante. I remember even when I wasn’t even here and coaching at another organization, him coming out – his skillset – I thought he had some special qualities for a big player. I’m excited for him that I think he’s playing his best football, and I think he still has some room to grow and get even better in a lot of ways. I think he realizes that. I think he’s become a really good player by example, by practicing and playing hard and all of his reps are quality reps, and then he tries to duplicate those reps in the game. He’s definitely in a zone that he’s feeling good about himself. I feel good about where his development is, and I know that he’s going to get even better.”
(On those 50/50 balls that QB Ryan Fitzpatrick was throwing him where he was just giving him an opportunity to go get it, what’s the key to being successful on those?) – “Be the first one. (laughter) I always think the first one that reacts to the ball usually has the best chance of getting to it, and he’s done a nice job with that. That’s probably part of his basketball background in terms of rebounding and things in a basketball game; but he has a good feel of reacting to the ball and timing it up at a pretty good – at good timing. I think that’s really what’s helped him from doing those things, and he was doing that stuff for a quite a while. We did it early in the season. A lot of it is, I believe it’s timing. He understands the timing. He sees it. He goes after it. I think usually the guy that reacts first has the best chance of coming down with it.”
(So how much of that is raw ability and how much of it comes from being out here working on that during the week, things you might help him with as far as technique?) – “It’s always both. I would say both. It is ability because you have to have a knack for understanding the timing of it, but I think part of it is, it has to be repped. It is something that you practice. I do a number of things in my individual drills – doing certain techniques – and sometimes they ask, ‘why am I doing this?’ I say, ‘well, because this is coming at some point in time down the road,’ so I try to do a lot of different things…”
(Do you have that kind of conversation with WR DeVante Parker? Explain why it will pay off in what happened on Sunday? Do you have those kinds of conversations?) –”Absolutely. Absolutely. I think all of our players have to understand that a 50/50 ball, that’s a guy that’s making an aggressive play, and usually like I said, it’s the first guy that reacts usually is the first one that has the best success at coming down with it. Whether you’re 6’4” or whether you’re my height at 5’11” or 6’1”, you still have a chance to come down with it if you’re the first one to go and try and attack it.”
(We know what you don’t have among your receivers ranging from Preston Williams to Jakeem Grant to Kenny Stills – with what you have, how would you describe these guys?) – “They’re all unique. They’re all different sizes and shapes. They’re fun to coach, and I like that as a coach with guys that have unique skillsets that are really more individually personalized for them; and I’m the type of coach to try to bring out the best of their qualities to make it benefit for our offense. I can’t ask for Albert Wilson to be like DeVante Parker and for DeVante Parker to be like Jakeem Grant. Those guys have all got different qualities. I try to just really build on their own natural skillsets and to bring out the best in them.”
(Are they a fast group, an overachieving group, a quick group, a hustling group because I really don’t know them?) – “I think all of the above. I really do. I think all of the above. These guys work hard. They work hard in practice. They’re scrappy. In ways they’re overachieving. In ways they’re developing and getting better by the week. Albert Wilson for example, is getting better by the week. You can see his confidence is growing. He’s had an injury that he had to deal with early on in the season. He’s still not 100 percent, but he’s getting close and you’re starting to see his movement improve. Same with Allen Hurns who’s kind of a new addition to us that we picked up in the summer time. He really has found a niche where he’s a dependable player for us. So we’ve had guys that are growing in our system pretty well. They all have different roles and different things that we try to maximize that all of them bring to the table, and that’s what’s helping us have a little bit more success.”
(Looking forward, what characteristics will this team want in a wide receiver?) – “To me, you have to be smart. You’ve got to be tough. You have to be able to adjust and to make adjustments in the course of a game. You have to be able to understand the game at a level that it takes to play in the NFL. All of those guys have those qualities. I think they’re a very unique group where they have athletic ability, really strong talents, but yet they’re very smart guys. They really get what needs to be done. They understand the adjustments that we need to make, and they’re able to – I’m able to verbalize this like I’m talking with you without the schematics of a board or anything like this and they understand what I’m talking about. I think we’ve been doing a really good job at least these last several weeks about making the right adjustments, given how teams are playing us and then coming up with ideas about still being successful.”
(WR DeVante Parker said after the last game that he almost lost his confidence in himself. DeVante doesn’t say much, so for him to publicly say that…) – “That’s true. For him to say all that, I’d be surprised. (laughter)”
(It was a very deep moment. It was touching, but it was sort of a reflection on the first four years of his career. I know you weren’t here, but I’m wondering – you weren’t here, so I’m going to tell you – WR DeVante Parker was beaten down. He was beaten down by the media. He was beaten down by the fans. Coaches publicly scolded him for not doing everything he needed to be doing and all that stuff, so what I’m wondering is, the DeVante you met when you arrived – did you sense in any way that he was somewhat wounded?) – “I’ll put it this way. I’m a new coach that comes in this building for the second time in my career, and I know of these players that I’m coaching. The first thing I do is put on the tape and I watch every snap they took last season – every player – and I make my notes about where we can improve, where we need to go. ‘Hey, this is really good. Let’s build on this.’ That type of thing. In DeVante’s case – in answering your question – I told him, just like this table here was kind of blank before you guys put your microphones down, but you really wipe off whatever has happened to him in the past. I’m a new coach. I’m coaching a new player, and as far as I’m concerned, you’re a great player just like I thought when you came out and let’s get to work. That’s really all I needed to say. He needed to know that I don’t have any stereotypes or based any opinion off anybody else, what everybody else has said or anything like that; and I knew of all those things. He has to prove to me that he’s that type of player or is he going to be the type of player that I’ve envisioned him to be when he came out of Louisville. So right now I think I’m winning that battle. I think he’s developing into the player that everybody thought he could be – at least that I thought he could be – and I know that he’s going to continue grow and get better.”
(Coaches and players have been using two words that stand out to me to describe WR DeVante Parker this year from QB Ryan Fitzpatrick to Offensive Coordinator Chad O’Shea to Head Coach Brian Flores to you. You guys have all at some time used the words “trust – I trust him” and there’s another one that’s similar to trust, “reliable.” These words that weren’t necessarily being attached to him early in his career. Can you sort of illustrate that for us? Is there something that you’ve seen him do or anything that he’s done that you guys have asked him to that is an example of him being reliable, trustworthy, mature, responsible – those positive words that we’ve attached to him?) – “I can just give it to you – all those words – let’s define trust to me. Trust to me is when I came in here and I wanted to earn the trust of my position group, they needed to know how hard I was going to work for them to help improve them to be the best they can be. I need to prove that. Over the course of time, I’ve been able to prove that, and they’ve taken to me just like I have taken to them and we’re close. My group is – we’re close. They understand the standards of how I like our players to play. They get it. They agree with it, and they’ve been able to grow and move forward. The trust thing that I think that you’re displaying is that from peer-to-peer, is that you have to have a level of consistency and a level of dependability in your play. DeVante has not missed a practice since I’ve been here. Yes, we’ve probably held him out of a couple of the preseason games and things like that, but he’s done everything to build up who he is up to this point – where we are right now at this point in the season. He’s been dependable. He’s been coming down making plays on the football. He’s done a lot of those things at a very high level. I think our quarterbacks trust him because of that long-term what’s built over the offseason all the way through this point, is that he’s become this type of player. It’s fun and it’s probably flattering and honoring for one of his peers to say that about him because that’s when you – you don’t want to talk about yourself. You want your players, your coaches and your peers to talk about how good you are; and DeVante doesn’t talk about himself. He knows he can better than where he is, but I know that he thinks he’s on the right track when he knows that he’s getting this type of feedback from his peers.”
(Given that WR DeVante Parker is a man of few words – and I assume that’s the case, not just with us but all the time, I don’t know – but did your relationship with him develop? Did it take longer? Was he harder to get to know?) – “No, not at all. I think he and I hit it off right from the start when we had our first meeting about ‘I’m coaching you the player from this point forward and not looking backwards;’ and I think he respected that, and I think that he liked that approach and then ever since that first meeting, he’s been taking off moving forward. We’ve grown over the time. He understands just like us – all of our players have a better feeling of my coaching style, the qualities and the priorities that I put within the things that we do, and I think they understand that. Then again, I also know that these guys are great young men, great people. They have feelings. They have personal concerns. They’ve got a lot of goals and aspirations for themselves that I want to help them achieve those things, too. I just think that get along well. They know that I’m working for their best interests, which is building the trust factor, and then they know that – or I know that – when I’ve got them on the field I trust that they’re going to do what’s needed to be done on our offensive standpoint. They’re going to do their job effectively and they’re going to try to make the plays that the offense needs to be successful.”
(So it didn’t take longer to get to know WR DeVante Parker before you got a handle on what he was about?) – “No, not at all. He doesn’t say much. He grunts a lot, (laughter) but other than that – he smiles, though. He smiles quite a bit, and he’s…”
(So how do you get to know a guy like that pretty quickly? What is it about WR DeVante Parker that you…) – “The things about him that he’s grown to understand, is that he’s become a better professional player. He has me talking and preaching about study habits and watching tape and all those things and giving great examples of guys that I’ve coached in the past that have done certain things (and) that have had high success. I think he’s bought into that. He comes in and he watches tape. I see him in there, we discuss a lot of things and he’s been – I would say he’s been a professional. He’s really taken to taking care of himself off the field, making sure he’s ready to play by Sundays. He’s had a lot of snaps this year. He’s still playing very, very well. I think he’s feeling this is what it means to be a player, and he wants to be a great player and I want him to be a great player. I want him to achieve his goals.”
(Did you have a plan for WR DeVante Parker this offseason in some of those aspects – the professionalism, the eating right, he mentioned massage and acupuncture and some of the things he does now?) – “All of those things, yes. That’s a regimen that you have to do to play at a high level. Most of the great players in this league, they play the game hurt. Sometimes you’re not feeling great and you’re having to play a game and they’re expecting so much of you; and I think he understands from a maturity standpoint, everybody’s sore at this point in the season, but I can do it still better than most and that’s what he’s building on.”
(How much of this breakout season is a function of him just being able to stay pretty healthy?) – “It’s definitely part of the equation. There’s no question about that. He’s had some nagging injuries, I would say the last two or three years, but I think that he’s taking care of his body and making sure he’s getting the proper treatment and doing things from a week-to-week basis which is helping him sustain good health, which is helping him be more productive.”
