Mike McDaniel – December 12, 2023
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Tuesday, December 12, 2023
Head Coach Mike McDaniel
(Did the information you got on WR Tyreek Hill regarding scans and swelling suggest to you that it’s week-to-week or day-to-day with him? And is OL Connor Williams out for the season?) – “Day to day for Tyreek (Hill), Connor Williams out for the season, ACL.”
(Torn?) – “Yeah.”
(How do you try to replace OL Connor Williams?) – “You don’t directly replace it necessarily, and I’d love to take the time right now to speak on the regard that this team has for Connor Williams and what he was doing this year, playing some excellent ball. His journey, position switching and really finding some good footing, you don’t necessarily replace that directly. However you also prepare a lot for contingencies for these types of scenarios. Typically, we’ve been as prepared – hats have gone off to the offensive line and (Offensive Line Coach) Butch (Barry) and (Offensive Coordinator) Frank Smith, just everybody, for how we’ve been able to sustain multiple lineup changes. Then at some point, it gets a little challenging on everyone when you start talking about your double digits and people participating on your team, but along that journey, guys get much more equipped to do it, guys start playing better at those positions. I thought – Liam (Eichenberg) has had a really cool season to me, because he’s gone at a position, whether it’s right guard, left guard, center, and he’s played well enough for us to win, and then the next week, he comes back and plays even better. That momentum we’ll be counting on, along those lines. You might see us add somebody here in the near future at some point. We’ve been working Lester Cotton all year at center as well. Those are the types of things that teams all around the league are doing at some point during the season at various positions – it’s part of football. So you get tested in a multitude of ways, whether that’s mind, body or spirit. I’m confident in the way that we’ll progress with that in his loss.”
(You just mentioned that guys have done a good job this year piecing in when guys have been out on the o-line, but four guys at some point yesterday were not starters from the start of the season. Does it change how you can call an offensive game when it becomes maybe too much as far as turnover on that offensive line?) – “You just have to be realistic. It’s not just blind faith, it’s earned faith. So when guys are in positions that I’m used to them being in, as well as I know their matchups, and the defensive presentation and how they’re stressed, there’s a multitude of times it doesn’t change anything at all, just because of the inherent deliberate reps that we’ve observed. Then there’s also situations where this guy or that guy hasn’t been in the scenario or hasn’t worked with this person and the various defensive presentations, that can change things a little bit. Yesterday, there were probably a couple of directions that I felt would be most prudent and the most responsible as a result for this particular circumstance, not out of lack of faith but just out of being fair to you’re competing against an opponent that’s practiced what they’re doing and what strain does it put on your offense. So it does adjust things in certain situations, and I think yesterday it did to degree a little bit just because of the exact formula, but that’s part of football. You’re assessing matchups and deciding a multitude of things based upon those matchups. It makes it a little more challenging but nothing that that you shouldn’t be able to handle.”
(What is your outlook on the short week regarding OL Rob Hunt and T Terron Armstead, whether you might be able to have them back for the offensive line?) – “I think (Terron) Armstead is more conceivable. It will be day-to-day with him. It’s part of just knowing what type of game it’s going to be and then the games ahead, specifically one with a short week, I think it made it more difficult to play Armstead last night. I think Rob (Hunt) is proving to be a little more week to week. I would be very pleasantly surprised if Rob was available for the Jets, but again, I’m not going to say that he can’t. But that’d be more of a pleasant surprise.”
(Updated on S DeShon Elliott, S Brandon Jones and OL Liam Eichenberg health-wise?) – “DeShon Elliott cleared the UNC’s (unaffiliated neurotrauma consultant) assessment during the game, however later on in the game, in communication with our training staff, he reported some verbal symptoms, so he is now in concussion protocol, because once he verbalized some symptoms, we immediately took him out. Liam Eichenberg came out of the game with some – he got bumped and bruised along the journey of the game. He fought through it really well. I was very, very impressed with his toughness, but it’s just the football bumps and bruises is the best way to put it.”
(S Brandon Jones?) – “Yeah, Brandon Jones, he had some stitches on an open wound, but he should be good.”
(With WR Tyreek Hill, I wanted to get your thoughts on just the importance obviously he is to your offense, but do you have to kind of remind yourself at times to spread the ball around, get WR Jaylen Waddle involved? Obviously, we saw WR Cedrick Wilson Jr. last night get a bunch of targets as well.) – “I think that is kind of inherent, at least for me as a play-caller, is you’re trying to distribute the ball. There are times where there’s a glutton of opportunities that go Tyreek’s way – generally, that’s momentum based, but collectively we’re our strongest when you have to worry about everyone. So there’s always that type of mindset and wanting to involve people, and then you just don’t fight how the game presents a lot of times. When he’s a hot hand, just like when Jaylen (Waddle) is a hot hand, similar things happen. I know there was – I can’t remember which week it was, maybe it was three weeks ago against Vegas, but people attributed Tyreek being out to Waddle getting successive starts when it really wasn’t the case. It was that you’re paying attention as a play-caller to what’s happening on the field with a clear mind, with an idea of what you’re going to go to, but then when people noticeably – you can feel the momentum of a certain moment, or a drive, or whatever, you try to empower the offensive by getting the ball in those guys hands. But that’s always something that you’re trying to distribute the ball to various guys. When you’re one of the best players in the National Football League, regardless of positions, you’re always going to get your opportunities, but it’s important for us to always make sure players are involved in their strength, whatever that is. Sometimes a guy’s strength is being at the point of attack, removing defenders from the point of attack. Like Alec Ingold, for instance, is very involved in every game and doesn’t get a ton of targets, but he’s one of the reasons other people get successful targets, whether it be a clean pocket or identification on how to run a tricky route from the backfield or whatever. Same thing with Durham Smythe. But for the most part, we try to distribute the ball because that’s the best way to keep the defense on their heels.”
(Why no offensive snaps for a guy like WR Chase Claypool? Could he be a potential solution to some of the red zone issues?) – “Yeah, I think he provides – everybody has a different skillset. You’re letting the week progress and you have different opportunities. The way that guys play out during the week kind of dictates those terms. I think some of the opportunities that Chase (Claypool) would have gotten were kind of won during the week by Cedrick Wilson Jr. a little bit, but we have that up every week, and he’s in the conversation, for sure. But you’re also not predetermining, ‘Alright, well, the Gods have spoken to me, you will make the best play.’ You kind of put it in their hands. In our receiver room particularly, there are several guys that can make plays on top of Tyreek (Hill) and (Jaylen) Waddle. So we try to be equitable during the week and let those guys earn those opportunities and see where they can have advantages. There were some – we didn’t get to them. There were some plays featured for Chase in the regular field and in the red zone, but we didn’t end up getting to those.”
(You referenced WR Tyreek Hill. Would you consider yourself optimistic of his chances to play Sunday?) – “I’m optimistic about Tyreek (Hill) in general. I know if there’s a will, there’s a way. It’s a little early to be that confident. Either way, that was a painful ankle (injury) that he took the time to warm up, work and get to a point where he could feel like he could provide what we need him to provide. He’s given me only reason to be confident in his ability, but until he flat out tells me that there’s no doubt that he’s going to play, you always have to plan for everything, and I haven’t talked to him today.”
(As far as Monday, we obviously don’t hear anything. But on the sideline, we see WR Tyreek Hill kind of standing there. Then he kind of runs in. Is there communication between you and him? Does he tell you he’s not okay? Do you tell him, wait? I’m curious kind of what that process was.) – “It’s all depending on the time of the game and what’s going on. But really, there’s a trifecta of communication between myself, (Head Athletic Trainer) Kyle (Johnston) and (Wide Receivers Coach) Wes Welker. Wes Welker’s on the headset, so a lot of times I’m just pacing and he’ll be talking to me. There were points in the game – he doesn’t want to lead us astray. This particular injury, he was just trying to move it enough to get a feel for how it’d be like going full speed, but not aggravate it even more and was just kind of being cautious walking back and forth. It was pretty stiff on him and then he finally got it to a place where he could go. Sometimes those happen at the last second and generally that’s communicated to me right before the play when it is that last second. Other times it’s like alright, well, next series or don’t have him for this series. There’s just constant communication that goes on with a lot of players but specifically guys like that.”
(I wanted to ask you about the last drive. It seemed like twice that there was, I don’t know, clock issues. The first was the TE Durham Smythe catch, should the clock have stopped then when they figured out what was going on? And maybe I’m mistaken but certainly the RB De’Von Achane catch on the sideline, he was originally called out of bounds and the players had their back to the refs and someone came in and wound the clock.) – “There’s pros and cons for every type of invention that comes within our game. We have this, I think a very, very productive system of replay assist, that can happen live speed that can make sure calls are right. With that being a newer system and with stars having to align, like in those type of situations, it can be pretty tricky. I believe that’s what happened because you go off the signal of the referee or the linesman and so you’re thinking it’s a stopped clock. Then out of nowhere, oh, it’s a running clock. Oh, yeah, and it happens to be fourth down. Those can kind of be tricky, but that’s not because of anyone being shortsighted. I can totally understand the reason for the system. That is a little tricky that you’re just not totally used to, when something like that happens. I can promise you this, every time someone’s being tackled right around out of bounds in a two-minute situation, that’s a learned scenario that I won’t keep my eyes off that person, regardless of what the situation is, because that is tricky. But we also have systems where we can go on the line of scrimmage, immediately. It wasn’t ideal, but I can understand why it happened because when you look at the replay, De’Von’s knee was down in bounds.”
(At the expense of spoiling Hard Knocks tonight, what has been your overall message communicated to the team since the loss?) – “I haven’t spoken with them today. We’re on a short work week, and their main focus today was re-gen. The players kind of met on their own. But last night and today, kind of my message is and will be when I get in front of them again, is that especially games like that, there’s a tangible amount of emotion that is derived from that. The way the game happened, the 14-point deficit that’s closed in four minutes., all the different opportunities, that’s emotionally – it can really just take over. You go to bed with emotion, you wake up with emotion. I understand that and I think that’s very valid for a bunch of people that care. Just like I’m sure a lot of people were pretty irritated last night that are fans that woke up the same way. Having said that, the objective, the main point is that you have to take that emotion and at some point you have to put it over here. Then you have to look at what actually happened in the game. The point is to learn from it and get better. The point is to use it in some way, shape or form moving forward. We have to. Thus far the season. we have done a good job. Out of the 13 opportunities, we’ve won nine of them. Four we lost and the previous three, I felt like we got better from it. That will be 100 percent what we will be focusing on together as a team and just moving forward because this is what I see. Removing the emotion, there was, let’s call it 70 plays, arbitrarily. Maybe 50 of them, I was really, really happy about they were prepared and they were good team defense, offense, and special teams. Then 30 of those, people have to recognize that probably we aren’t making at the beginning of the season. That’s really good stuff. That being said, there was some really bad stuff, really bad stuff. You get in a situation where you’re the first team to lose a game up by 14 in the last three to four minutes since like, 2017. Yeah, that’s what it is, and you don’t run away from it. You don’t say, oh, everything’s all good. No, the point of this game, which you’re trying to accomplish things that are very hard that everyone else is trying to accomplish, is you have to be willing to look at the hard things and make sure they don’t define you. Make sure that you utilize that opportunity. That adversity is real and it either is what you are, or what is the reason you become something else. That I think is something that we’re used to, but there’s not a finer example. Especially like in the last month, we’ve said a ton, we want to play our best football in December. That game was in December, and that was not our best football. Well, we have two to three more games in December, then one in January promised to us. We better utilize all the things that we absolutely do not want to relive in the other games. Then it’s purposeful. Then you’re not defined as that, you’ve used it to define who you’re going to be. It’s not easy, but who said anything that any of our goals are easy. I’m very motivated for the team to work through undesirable circumstances to achieve their best selves and our best versions of the team. That takes work. That takes 100 percent commitment from everyone. It’s not for everybody, but what we’re trying to do isn’t anyway.”
(At risk of overstepping what’s my business, you sound fairly emotional today. You were just talking about emotion. Is that OL Connor Williams? Is that the loss? If that’s not my business, that’s fine.) – “I wouldn’t say emotional. I’m excited for the work in front of us. So I guess I’m convicted. If it’s coming across as emotion, I’m just generally an emotional guy. But there’s conviction in what I see from that tape from the game yesterday and I think that it’s as clear as day to me on what needs to be done with regard to handling a disappointment like that. The biggest thing is you have to work through all that stuff, get better from it, than focus on the Jets. It is that simple and easy, but very hard to do in practice and that’s kind of the direction I’m going. If you’re going to ask me not to be emotional, you’re going to have to ask me not to be me any day. You’ve been there. You say the right topic and I’ll go to half-tears in a heartbeat. It’s not a big deal. I’m pumped for the work week and the gains that our team can make.”
