Karl Dorrell – September 3, 2019
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Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Wide Receivers Coach Karl Dorrell
(So on WR Preston Williams, obviously we saw incredible things in the first game. Has there been regression since? What have you seen from him at practice and in games? I guess, where does he stand at this point?) – “Well, we are excited about Preston. We think he has been a bright spot in terms of the new guy coming into the program and being undrafted, he has come a long way from where he started here in the spring. He had a really good preseason in terms of our camp, so we are excited about Preston. I don’t think there has been any regression. I think sometimes we don’t give guys as many reps as the progression of the preseason goes because he has shown us enough in practice about what his abilities are and how we think he can help us offensively. Plus, there’s an evaluation of a lot of other players as you try to get a good evaluation of and try to make the comparisons by giving those other players some reps and seeing how that stacks up with the group. But I think overall, Preston has had a really great camp.”
(Who is the best slot receiver on your roster now? Do you think it is Albert (Wilson)?) – “Well, Albert just got out there, so it was good to have him back practicing. He had some reps in the Saints game. He looks really good, so for the time that he has had off from recovering from his injury and now he is back close to full speed and doing some really good things. I think he is going to be really a dynamic – one of those caliber players that can play for us in the slot. Jakeem (Grant) is the same type of player, so we do feel pretty comfortable about where Albert is and Jakeem, so we think both of those guys will be very effective for us.”
(I know a couple years ago, the former staff moved WR Jakeem Grant from the boundary thinking he would be more effective there and he was. Do you agree that outside is where he is best suited for as opposed to slot?) – “I think he has a really good skill set to play both, to be honest with you. The previous staff did use him primarily on the outside I think, and I think for ourselves, we are going to use him both inside and outside. He has done enough in his development from what I have seen to do some of those things outside very effectively. We are going to also utilize his skillset because he is such a dynamic runner with the ball in his hands, that he will play in the slot as well. So, we are going to plan on using him in both scenarios.”
(Do you have a feel yet – I don’t know if you can share this – for four-receiver sets at this point. Do you think it would be WR Allen Hurns ahead of WR Preston Williams?) – “Well, I am not going to share any game-plan situations of what we will do; but we have great versatility, I will tell you that. So, we feel really comfortable with this group in terms of their inside and outside versatility. We are going to devise plans to try to put our players into positions that we think will make us effective on offense. So, that is a good thing offensively as coaches, but it is just a matter of putting guys in the right spots on certain things that we do.”
(I know it was a very tough call amongst WR Allen Hurns, WR Brice Butler and WR Isaiah Ford. What ultimately gave Hurns the edge to be here on the 53?) – “He came in here actually mid-camp with an opportunity to learn our offense and had to do it at such a fast rate, that he came in and did some nice things. It was a tough decision on this whole situation because there was so much competition, particularly in developing who your final five or six players are. But, he came a long way from the process of being here for such a short time. He seems to be recovered from that injury that he had from last year and his experience and knowledge and ability has really helped him get to the place where he is now. So we are excited to have him.”
(And WR DeVante Parker – with WR Kenny Stills gone – DeVante appears to be perhaps your number one guy. Your expectations for him?) – “Right now, I won’t say there is anybody that is slated that way. Our offense is, if you have seen this system and even the Patriots, they have a number of different guys that play a number of different roles and don’t necessarily have kind of that guy. I think we are still built the same way. It is an exciting group that will make challenges for defenses to cover. Again, like I said earlier, we are going to try to make sure we do a great job of putting guys in numerous places to make them effective and whoever is the hot guy that particular game may have eight catches. Whoever is not, may not; but you never know how that is going to shake out depending on the game plan and how teams try to defend us.”
(You excited about WR DeVante Parker, though specifically?) – “Absolutely. He had a great spring and a great camp. He got a little bit nicked up in the middle of camp but he is back full speed now and we are excited to get going and get started this week.”
(You have a really great group.) – “We have a really great group. I am excited about the group. It is a lot of different body types and sizes and athletic skills and it is a nice group to have. Not everybody is one type of guy, and that is what is going to make this a little bit more dynamic than most teams that have our skillset.”
(WR Albert Wilson’s dynamic playmaking ability – we have seen in just the one preseason game – slant route, deep pass, end around – His versatility, how big of an asset is Albert Wilson for the offense?) – “Just by the way you described it shows a lot about our excitement about what Albert can do. He is a great all-around player. He’s a very good football player that runs good routes, he can be in the backfield doing certain things, he can run on reverses, he can run across the field and run certain concepts. He is a very instinctive player that really understands the game and understands seeing certain areas and zones to get open and separate versus man. So, he has a great mindset as a player about understanding what he is dealing with and being effective within those elements. We are happy to have him back. He is back on the field. He feels comfortable now getting a chance to get back on the field and getting his feet wet. It’s kind of in a hurry-up fashion now because he has missed most of the spring and camp, but I am excited that he is back healthy again and playing with us. He is chomping at the bit right now.”
(I feel like the Saints game, WR Albert Wilson caught that long pass and a screen, he was like dying to release all of that.) – “Exactly. A lot of it was it prove that he is ok. That is the point that we wanted him to play a few plays in that game and just let him get tackled and get the elements of the game to shake off the rust and then get yourself comfortable playing again. That was what our purpose was.”
(With this offensive line needing to develop this season, how important is it for you guys to get the ball quickly to WR Albert Wilson to WR Jakeem Grant, to some of the running backs as well too. Just get it out of their hands and get it to a playmakers hands as soon as possible?) – “I think that is very important from just an offensive strategy standpoint is to be able to do some things from getting the ball on the perimeter and getting a chance to attack defenses in certain ways. Good offenses do that. They try to make the defense defend the field. I think we are going to have to make sure we are doing those things offensively for us just because of the skill set of guys that we have. We have some guys that with the ball in their hands quickly can make people miss and have enough speed to make effective plays downfield. So, we are going to be able to do a lot of those things and with the speed that we have at the position too we can also try to stretch the field too. So, it is a good asset of skillsets for us as a receiver group to attack a defense; but I think they have to understand that we are trying to make them defend the field and we are trying to make them pick and choose what we need to do.”
(WR Preston Williams was the guy with the big story at wide receiver among the media. What was it that he showed you that maybe stood out above anything else?) – “When we did our evaluation that we had before the draft, we saw this big athletic kid that had some really good versatility for his size. He is almost 6’5”. He runs well, he was a punt returner. A guy at 6’5”, a punt returner and things like that you saw in college. We were fortunate that after the draft and he wasn’t picked, we said, ‘wow, here is a great opportunity to work with a guy that has tremendous potential.’ Well, he lived up to that. He is a fun kid to coach – a very bubbly personality, very confident kid. I think he has got a long way to go in terms of understanding his complete skillset, but I think he is a guy that will be a really good player in this league in time. He proved that over the course of the spring and got better and better. As he learned our system, had a great preseason camp and you know you saw the first game he played really well. Even though he didn’t have any catches against Jacksonville, he was going against their best people and he was still getting open, so that was exciting to see. So, I think he has tremendous potential to blossom into a really good player for us so we are excited about that.”
(WR Allen Hurns is a guy that had a very quiet, low-key training camp. I think amongst the media folk, may have been a surprise making the 53. What did you guys see in him?) – “He did everything right. That is basically what he has done. Allen doesn’t say much, doesn’t talk much, you don’t see him trying to draw any type of attention to himself, but if you watch his play and his snaps in games, he was in the right spot and he was open and he was doing the right thing in the run game and he was playing like a great veteran should play. He is such a professional. I think he has a quiet confidence about what he brings to our group and he is just one of those guys that had to learn our system quickly because we picked up him late and he had to do that and he was able to do that. He was a good pick up and surprise for us. We are excited to have him.”
