Mike McDaniel – December 2, 2024
Monday, December 2, 2024
Head Coach Mike McDaniel
(It wouldn’t be Monday without asking you if LB Bradley Chubb or LB Cam Goode will begin practicing this week?) – “Well, of course their window will be opening. Yeah, those two, they’ll be out there practicing on Wednesday and to me, those are the I think very impactful just to have them on the practice field. That’s never lost on teammates when you have an extensive injury that happens in-season so then you are finishing the season rehabbing. The offseason program, they’re watching them rehab. The beginning of the season, they’re watching them rehab. While everyone’s on vacation, they are here rehabbing. So it’ll be exciting to get their windows started and they’ll be practicing on Wednesday.”
(Can you speak to the boost that can provide the defense to have an edge rusher of LB Bradley Chubb’s caliber and obviously everything LB Cam Goode does?) – “I think just from a team standpoint, any time you have, like I said, guys that are sacrificing day in, day out, right in front of you, just having them to start practice; that in itself, beyond the players but the people, you inherently don’t take as much for granted when you’re out there watching them go through it and been fortunate enough to be for all the teammates that will be out there with them. They’ve gotten the opportunity to play, I know those two won’t take any practice rep for granted and I think that just in general is an added lift regardless of what happens between the lines on whatever Sunday.”
(Did you get any clarity on CB Kader Kohou’s back? Just making sure that it’s not something that would sideline him.) – “Yeah, he’s still working through it and I know it’s not something that’s in the conversation of a roster adjustment or whatever. Whether or not he’s going to be ready for this game, that’s a little too early to tell, I think.”
(How about CB Cam Smith?) – “His injury was a little more severe. What that means for – I would say that would be week-to-week. Discussing ways to attack it, but it was a rough injury that will keep him out for this week. I know that much.”
(CB Kendall Fuller?) – “Optimistic, optimistic. He is still in protocol, but optimistic just based upon conversations with the experts and him. Optimistic that he’ll be out there this game, but we’ll see how the protocol progresses.”
(I don’t think we followed up with you on the QB Tyler “Snoop” Huntley activation, would it be competition now coming up for that backup job between him and QB Skylar Thompson?) – “No, but the plan is that I wanted to see ‘Snoop’ (Tyler Huntley) operate and everything, but the plan is to have him back Tua (Tagovailoa) up this week.”
(You’ve seen plenty of QB Aaron Rodgers, WR Davante Adams in your time as a coach, what makes that connection, and the Jets passing game if you can, special or difficult to defend?) – “It’s all the working history that those two have, you can’t replicate. Like it’s hours upon hours, so when you talk about pass game in the National Football League, if it was a seven-on-seven league, it would be a much different league. The big component in the pass game is getting open in the timing of the play because of pass rush. So those hyper split-second things that happen on every given down, you talk about a tenth of a second can be the difference if you know what someone’s going to do and a completion explosive. You wait one-tenth because of uncertainty and it’s a sack-fumble. The two extremes of pass plays, everything is dependent upon guys being on the same page in super contested situations. So you talk about the way that they can orchestrate the old west coast ‘Lookie’ route – which is he can break in or break out within five yards. I mean they have some of the all-time best clips and have done it Week 1, Week 17, playoffs. They’ve done it a ton so that working relationship goes a long way in football, so I think you have to be that much more sound in your technique and fundamentals and rely on your teammates to own their leverage and if you’re an outside leverage player, to rely on the player that has inside leverage that’s zoning, or vice versa. Those things are paramount, otherwise they’ll take advantage of any sort of indecision with convicted play, so it’s something that you have to prepare to not make it a competitive advantage that inherently they would have unless you are on your Ps and Qs and ready to defend them.”
(A question about the offense. The offense that we see this year, is it here to stay, the offense we’re seeing now? Or next year, do you go back to the WR Tyreek Hill, WR Jaylen Waddle-centric offense?) – “I think it’s important that you don’t – there’s a saying about like ‘swim uphill,’ or go against the current or something. Whatever that is, you want to score points on as many possessions as possible. You do that by getting first downs, getting yardage, getting in field goal range and then punching it into the endzone. I think the more you execute at the zones that defenses are giving up to defend Tyreek (Hill) and Jaylen (Waddle), the more that it comes full circle. To me, the offense hasn’t really changed from a concept standpoint; it’s been an emphasis on how to take advantage of people overplaying those two. So I think you saw it in the past game. It was the end of the game, but it was a coverage that they had been running all game. We had a 30-yard completion in rhythm to Tyreek that was something that was heavily influenced by Jonnu (Smith) sitting down in the five-yard area that when you turn those five-yard completions into 14-yard gains like he did earlier in the game, I think that same offense that you’re referring to, it’s all about how defenses are choosing to really attack you and what they’re willing to concede and if they’re willing to concede certain things to double those guys, we have to execute in full tonality. Not only the other eligibles, not only the quarterback, not only the protection, but Jaylen and Tyreek have to threaten the defense the same way if they were getting the ball. And if they do that, and defenses are made to pay, I think within that game, that 30-yard completion that I’m referring to probably wasn’t open earlier in the game. It’s much of executing from an entire tonality, an entire unit, all 11 people and you can pick your poison when you’re running appropriate offense. And if they want to bring a five-man pressure or blitz or bring six, you have to be able to execute there. If they want to drop an extra guy in zone, do a three-man rush or a two-man rush; that’s the game you’re playing. So I think the more production that we see across the board, I think just in this last two game sample set or maybe the last three games, you’ve seen some explosives and some more production closer to what we’re used to from Tyreek and Jaylen. They’ve been ready for the opportunity, but it’s also been based upon having to be able to be productive doing other things to make them defend the flats or the short curl areas or whatever they’re giving up to give that extra attention to those two.”
(Speaking of that production TE Jonnu Smith already has career highs in receptions and receiving yards and has a few games left. What have been some of the keys behind the success?) – “I think his development first and foremost within the offense, I think he’s really gravitated towards the timing and understanding, how being open when the quarterback is ready to throw it to him and being able to use his speed on the stems of routes vertically before he snaps down or does any sort of break. That’s been huge for him and I think he signed on for the journey with a vision of, hey, I think I can really take advantage of where defenses are going to try to really load up that intermediate and third level of coverage and that space; I can make people pay. And then in coordination with all the work that Jon Embree has done with him and Tua’s ability to be confident and convicted when he goes to him, he’s getting the ball and probably he’s getting better ball placement for his run after catch than he’s ever had before which is based upon Tua’s skillset and what he is elite at. And then just honestly the momentum, every time Tua throws it to him I think he’s positively reinforced based upon his teammates because his teammates – Jonnu brings juice when he touches the ball. You can feel the violence with which he carries the ball and approaches tacklers and he’s not a fun guy to tackle. He’s a hard guy to bring down and certainly someone that I think at the beginning of the season probably was fourth or fifth on the table of priorities of people to attention to on offense and I think he’s climbed his way up simply taking advantage of the opportunities presented. So I think it’s the whole, really the operation from the quarterback to Jonnu and Jonnu is making the most of those opportunities by the amount of separation he’s achieving in his routes and then his mindset – understanding what he brings to this team with the ball in his hands and taking that personal.”
(What are the ways that you and the coaching staff measure the physical and mental toughness of the team?) – “There’s no shortcut to that. I think it’s very, very important to remove emotion and critically assess how people respond to all sorts of things, whether there’s a similarity in the amount of mental toughness you need to have if you have a two-score lead or you’re down by two scores. Either way, you should be focusing on the job at hand, your specific role, your technique, your fundamentals, and letting the four-quarter game play out as such. And so you find out a ton in winning, you find out a ton in losing. You find out a ton in just how people respond to all the different things thrown a professional football player’s way. Regardless, we don’t execute our jobs in a vacuum. I think it’s a big indicator when there’s a lot of noise – good or bad – so if people are crowning you to be the Super Bowl champion midseason or people are talking about next year in the middle of it, either way you really get a vision into where your team’s mental fortitude is at. I think the journey from 2-6 to 5-6 told me a ton and it gives me a certain sort of expectation now being 5-7 moving forward. You want to know if a team can really focus itself on the opponent – honestly, that’s the only thing that really matters. For us, that’s the New York Jets. As tough as the last game was against the Green Bay Packers or as cool as a three-game win streak, all of it is erroneous. You have to prepare yourself for the next game and that’s where it’s imperative to be mentally strong as a football team, and based upon kind of our circumstance as a football team, we were blessed with adversity early. So you feel like you have a mentally tough football team based upon that and expectations based upon my experience with them. Our whole football team will have an opportunity to showcase mental toughness and internal fortitude this week coming off a loss. But you’re tested constantly in the National Football League just based upon the longevity of the season, how difficult each week is and how many times you have to pick yourself off the canvas to have a successful season. Because outside of the ’72 Dolphins, that’s what every team has had to do to have success.”
(How is T Kendall Lamm doing?) – “He proved who he is once again for us. The injury that he sustained during the game, getting on the elbow, a lot of people don’t even sniff the field again. That’s a very painful injury. He came back and could have played longer if we asked him to. I think he’s a veteran that knows how to take care of his body and has a very high pain tolerance so he’s doing all right.”
