Mike McDaniel – September 6, 2023
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Wednesday, September 6, 2023
Head Coach Mike McDaniel
(I know over the history of time, NFL head coaches for whatever reason have often guarded the identity of offensive linemen who are starting, so I’m going to throw out two questions if you wish to answer either one. Who won the left guard competition between OL Liam Eichenberg and T Isaiah Wynn? I know Liam was listed first on the depth chart, in the least. Number two, is T Terron Armstead feeling well enough that you believe he’s likely going to start on Sunday?) – “I can’t speak for other people, but me myself, I am very fond of you and out of no disrespect do I not answer things. However, from a football coach’s perspective, there’s a lot of different ways that you can take information so you just try to prioritize, I know, the team over you. (laughter) Terron Armstead, I mean I would be an absolute fool to discount or really have any sort of feeling considering he did what I’ve only been around like, once or twice in my career – he did literally the entire season – which was not practice and play. So, I have a hard time after all those reps, ruling one way or the other. The great thing about Terron and myself, as well as the rest of coaching staff, is we have great communication amongst what’s the best for the team, patience and making sure that we don’t go out there and take a step back. So that long-winded answer is, to me as a professional coach, I plan when he’s not practicing to play without him. However, I’m not going to go into that crystal ball because I would have been wrong more than I was right last year. Had a good conversation today, had a good conversation yesterday and feel good where he’s at mentally.”
(Along those lines, the day before T Terron Armstead went down, injured his leg, he himself said that he wasn’t ready to play Week 1. Given the fact that it’s been two or three weeks and he may not get a week of practice this week, is it the same situation as last year where he just doesn’t practice and then he can suit up Sunday?) – “There were measures taken this offseason so that we could prevent that from occurring. You can’t control everything, but that was part of the reason we had such a gradual introduction into football for him is to try to avoid that at all costs. That’s not ideal. It’s already hard enough when you’re playing, offensive, defensive line football. That’s where the phrase, it’s a game of inches comes from. When you’re in charge of blocking the best athletes in the game, you can’t have anything in your head. It’s already hard enough to block them the way that Terron is able to do. But to do it without going through the calls, the calls between your teammates, the assignments live speed, it’s pretty remarkable what he was able to do last year. We’re trying to avoid that as best we can. But we’ll always adapt.”
(One of the old rules of football was the offensive line has to practice together. Is that a fallacy?) – “That’s what you try to enter every year, however you have to adjust based upon your current situation. I have been very well versed at how to adjust. So that’s from an ideal standpoint, but you’re also kind of shortchanging Mr. (Chris) Grier and those guys in that, you also want tough decisions. So, it’s a balance. The best scenario is you have the very best player at their position at every position. Apparently, the salary cap frowns on that. It isn’t necessarily a negative to have things drag on longer than you’re used to. I haven’t had really this many capable starters on one line. Usually there’s a huge difference in who you’re trying to get acclimated to the NFL game, and who is acclimated. We took measures to make sure that competition was at its fiercest and the dividends aren’t in the way that you’d totally expect. You’d love a clear-cut answer but at the same time, I think that’s somewhat of a positive as well speaking to, there’s only five available spots. When you have more than five players, as we feel like we do, it can get kind of tricky. But nothing we can’t handle.”
(To circle back for a moment, I don’t think you addressed the left guard portion of the original two-for-one.) – “I thought I addressed it. I just didn’t want any disrespect. Do not take it personal. (laughter) I should in theory be better at my job than spoon-feeding. Regardless, I know one thing. My time spent with Brandon Staley and the coaches that I know over with the Chargers; they’re going to be prepared for everybody. It’s all in jest but if it helps us sleep at night then we’ll do it.”
(I’ll ask you it this way, then how much weight do we put on the official depth chart at this point?) – “How heavy is the paper? (laughter) I mean, man it could be spot on. Or it could be totally abstract. It’s really semantics. The biggest thing is that we need everybody locked into what their role is within this week and the players we’re going against. It took me, what, two games as a head coach in the NFL to realize that everyone that is up better be able to play regardless of the position. Injuries are aplenty and they happen fast and when they do, the box score does not care.”
(WR Tyreek Hill has talked about getting 2,000 yards receiving. As we sit here today, would you say that that would indicate the offense is healthy if he gets it or that the offense is maybe too one-sided?) – “Shoot, I could see both scenarios. The thing about a player such as Tyreek is generally, if you’re getting yards on an opponent with him running around really fast, it generally opens up other players for opportunities for success. You do want to spread the ball around. At the same time, really, if your percentages are still high in how you’re targeting him and the completion percentage is still robust, I think it’s just like a defense. A defense will run a certain coverage or a certain blitz until you can execute against it, and they will continue to do it until you can give them reason not to. I think there’s a little of both there. But great players can get numbers while also spreading the ball around. We’ll just see the opportunities that our guys take advantage of.”
(Obviously it’s a violent sport. What gives you the confidence that QB Tua Tagovailoa is ready to play 17 games this regular season?) – “When you go into a situation and you completely cross all the T’s, dot all the I’s on what you can control, if I worried about stuff that could possibly happen or all the different things that can happen in the game of football, I’d be spending a lot of time worrying about something that probably by statistics didn’t happen. You deal with whatever comes in front of you. I’m very confident because he hasn’t wasted a day in getting ready for the season. That was a huge goal of his. He understands what he means to this football team and I can tell you honestly that he does not take that for granted at all. How much support he has to do what he does, he definitely has given it back this offseason. Actions. He’s really gone after it, so it’s hard not to be confident in that.”
(Looking back at the last time you played the Chargers, and correct me if I’m wrong, but it looked like they played a lot of press coverage, maybe shading inside for inbreaking routes. Figure they may try some of that again this game. What are your thoughts on that tactic as a ploy against your offense?) – “Execute against it. Obviously it wasn’t cool to experience it first-hand, but from a coaches perspective, I told Brandon (Staley) after the game, it was so impressive, it just tells a lot about that team that they didn’t blink and they came out to challenge us and they did. I think that’s a lesson that can never fall to the wayside for any coach or team. It’s all about the group of people coming together and they were prideful, came out with a chip on their shoulder, I would say, and it was cool from a coaching perspective to see a team attack it that way. That will happen nine times out of 10, if people have that competitive edge on you. That’s something that the second you forget in this league, that’s the great thing about the National Football League is that parity is so real. The fact that 80-plus percent of the games come down to turnover differential, it just speaks to how a communal effort by a bunch of individuals, and if you don’t bring it, it will get brought on you.”
(Sticking with Tua, what is your message to him this week as he gets ready for his first regular season game in, I think, nine months? Or is he the kind of guy that you’re not worried about getting too amped up?) – “Human nature would lend me this. You talk about something that hasn’t happened so often, in terms of the next time you play. You’re preparing yourself. You’re answering questions. That in itself makes it a natural, human buildup. I’m conscious of that, not because he’s done anything to indicate that, but because I’m a human being who has ears and eyes. The biggest thing for Tua is literally as boring as the same thing that we’ve been talking through each and every practice when anything goes right or wrong. And it’s like “And?”. It’s worry about the next play. Worry about how we’re getting from the huddle to the line of scrimmage. Worry about your technique and fundamentals and your assignments. You have to hold that independently, because the second you start buying into a bad play or a good play, you’re really wishing the future into existence. It’s hard enough to play in this league, you can’t worry about extra stuff. I just want him to go throughout today and get everything mentally out today and biomechanically. Then approach tomorrow where we get more situational stuff and Friday the same thing. It’s that process that across all sports, anybody that’s been successful over a period of time, has that process to them. You’re only as good as the next play that you have. You shouldn’t stand on entitlement of previous plays if they were good. Or you shouldn’t shame yourself if you didn’t like the result. That mental fortitude, that strong mindedness, is something that not many people have, but Tua is wired that way, which gives him a chance to succeed.”
(How is Quarterbacks/Passing Game Coordinator Darrell Bevell doing? It was reported that he was away from the team with a detached retina.) – “If you want to talk about adversity being an opportunity, a great way to show people how much you care is lay down for a week and the only thing you look at is practice footage endlessly. There’s a lot of things that I haven’t really gone through. I can kind of venture to extrapolate what that would be like. A week? Like this? What was cool was the team moment with that because that little story, which people have their own stuff to worry about, but there’s so many stories like that where people are sacrificing things, going through things to contribute to this team whether its coach or player. It wasn’t lost on the quarterbacks. You should’ve seen them. The first time we talked about it after he got the surgery, you should’ve seen their eyes light up. This practice is all Bev’s got going. He’s going to watch on his iPad for the next 24 hours, so live with that. They ended up, collectively all three of them, had a really good practice that particular day that it occurred. I think that’s a testament to who Bev is and the players on this team and how people are all in with each other.”
(You shared with us in the spring that there was a time where QB Tua Tagovailoa actually considered stepping away from the game. Do you have a sense for, since he made that decision, what this means to him, being able to continue to play the game?) – “I took that as a young athlete. You hear a bunch of noise, and you agree or disagree. The second that he digested that, he didn’t necessarily tell me, but he really didn’t have to either. He was so focused. Football is a crazy sport. It’s a physical sport where things can happen that are out of your control. But I think it speaks how diligently he’s attacked this offseason. There was a time where I was like, “Hey, jiu-jitsu?” And on the field he’s had a couple of opportunities to, without having to say anything, without having to do anything but trust his training. He’s shown everybody really where his mind is at. You have to really attack that. If you push me over right now, I’m not sure I’d be able to withstand it. I’d probably have a separated shoulder or something. It’s like everything else, he’s an unbelievable learner. We all feel very fortunate to be a part of that process.”
