Transcripts

Search Transcripts
Rob Leonard – August 1, 2019

Thursday, August 1, 2019

Linebackers Coach Rob Leonard

(LB Jerome Baker, arguably your best linebacker here – what is it about him? His enthusiasm, how much he plays, his skillset – what is it about him that kind of makes everybody kind of gravitate towards him on defense?) – “Well first, I wouldn’t say he’s the best right now. We’re definitely all competing. In my opinion, he’s definitely emerging as a leader. He has all of the physical tools – cover, blitz, he can run, he’s physical. He’s starting to really believe all the things that we saw when we first got here, so he’s really emerging. His personality is starting to show, which are all great things to see as we’re building a team essentially. He’s in a key spot for us, so that’s really nice to see.”

(LB Sam Eguavoen – what has he done to really emerge on the first team?) – “Sam has done everything and more that we’ve asked him to do. If you control the things you can control, which is what he’s done – and again, it really is competitive. Even though he’s out there with the first team, they’re all spots. We’re not just competing with guys in our room. We’re going to put the 11 best on the field, and right now, Sam is playing at a high level, so he’s getting more reps. That’s just the way I look at it. In all honesty, it’s still not with me. When I do the script in the morning to go out to practice, it’s not first team, second team, third team. ‘Who’s earned the reps from yesterday? This is where I’m going to put them.’ He can play these spots. He’s shown me he has that skillset, so I’m going to put him in the position to do those things. When I say I honestly script practice, I don’t even think, all right, he’s first team or second team.”

(What has LB Sam Eguavoen done to earn first-team reps?) – “He’s been physical, communicated. All the pre-snap stuff, it starts there. He’s getting lined (up), he’s taking control, which is what I want to see first, and then once we put the pads on, he’s actually playing downhill, playing with his hands, using the fundamentals that we’ve talked about from all of spring. Transitioning from the spring to putting pads on, that’s been key and why he’s had more opportunity.”

(What have you liked from LB Raekwon McMillan, and what does he need to do to have more of an opportunity?) – “Raekwon, he’s done everything that’s been asked. In the spring, he missed some time, and with that, there’s going to be a learning curve. Raekwon’s doing just fine. He just needs to keep controlling what he can control, and again, I go back to take advantage of the snaps he gets, and it’ll all fall into place at the end. There are four preseason games left. I couldn’t be more honest about there are no ones, twos and threes.”

(We saw LB Raekwon McMillan walk off today. Was he just banged up?) – “I’m not really sure. You’ll have to talk to ’Flo’ (Head Coach Brian Flores) about that.”

(I wanted to ask you just about the two rookies if you could talk about each of them. LB Terrill Hanks – what’s he shown you? LB Tre’ Watson – what’s he shown you?) – “Tre’ has shown me confidence. He’s shown me he’s smart, he’s physical and he’s a football player. Both of those guys are here because of ‘football-player-first,’ not this height, weight, speed – all the intangible stuff. Terrill, his confidence is coming along really well, which is good for me. The more confidence he has, the better you control a situation, the more spots I can put you in and the more reps you get.”

(We’ve seen LB Jerome Baker kind of do more play-calling for the first time out there. He said he loves that trust and just hopes he can keep it. What has he done to earn that from you, and do you anticipate that being a role he can keep?) – “I watch everything, not just from the standpoint, ‘are you communicating?’ It’s how you’re communicating it. Are the guys listening to you? Are you owning the field? Like I said, he’s kind of coming into his own with that. With the confidence of getting reps, your confidence goes up. So that’s really kind of what I see why more responsibility is being put on him. We wanted to see if he could communicate in the first place when we got here, and he’s done a good job with that. With that, his confidence has come, and that’s where he is right now.”

(How tough a call will that be knowing that LB Jerome Baker really good at coverage, but we’ve seen the upside he has a pass-rusher. How do you use him? It might be a good dilemma, right?) – “Yeah. Hey, the more you can do, I don’t see how that’s a bad thing. Based on matchup, we’re going to try to put him in the best position, I promise you that.”

Search Transcripts

Weekly Archives