Wes Welker – October 20, 2022
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Thursday, October 20, 2022
Wide Receivers Coach Wes Welker
(One surprise this year, and I know obviously, this is a big product of having WR Tyreek Hill on the team, WR Cedrick Wilson Jr. signed 11 days before WR Tyreek Hill was acquired. I guess just lack of touches for WR Cedrick Wilson Jr. and the fact that WR Trent Sherfield played a ton more snaps and WR Cedrick Wilson Jr. last Sunday, what has accounted for WR Trent Sherfield seemingly, at least last week, surpassing WR Cedrick Wilson Jr. on the depth chart?) – “Well, I think each and every week, our room, the wide receiver room, is highly competitive. I think we have a lot of really good players in that room. It’s like I tell the guys every week of whoever’s doing the best in practice on the assignments, on top of everything, that’s who we’re going to play at the time. I think ‘Ced’ (Cedrick Wilson Jr.) has made a lot of strides in the past weeks, and I see him getting a lot more playing time and getting some touches going forward. But it’s always a process, especially anybody new coming into the system and learning the system and all those different things. We kind of take it week by week, and I think all the guys in my room understand the way I kind (and) the way our coaching staff kind of operates. Whoever gives us the best chance to win, that’s who’s going to be out there on the field. That could be ‘Ced’ going forward, it could be Trent (Sherfield), it could be River (Cracraft), it could be anybody. It’s just a matter of how it goes through the week and what gives us the best chance to win the game.”
(Did you talk to WR Jaylen Waddle after his game last week? Or do you kind of back off and worry that there might be too many voices in his ear? How do you handle that?) – “I think anytime for young players, there’s – your whole life, you pretty much have all these awesome, awesome games. It’s no different than anybody – you’re going to have a bad day at the office. It wasn’t his best day and he understands that. The way we kind of talked about it was what can we learn from it? How can we get better from it? What can we do preparation-wise, or practice-wise, or whatever it is, to correct those things and make sure we don’t have that feeling again? Jaylen (Waddle) is a tough kid and battles, playing hurt, playing all those different things. So there’s a lot that a lot of these young guys kind of deal with, and over time, you have success, and you have failures and everything else – it’s all about how you bounce back from them. I see Jaylen is a tough-minded dude who’s going to bounce back from it. He’s going to be a big part of our offense going forward and a big reason why we’re going to be able to have success this season.”
(WR Tyreek Hill is on a record pace early. How much more impressive is it because he’s had to do it with different quarterbacks throwing to him?) – “I think the way we coach our quarterbacks and the timing and all those different things, I don’t think it really changes too much for us. Tyreek (Hill) does a great job just being a pro coming in week-in week-out and bringing that energy and doing what you need to do to prepare for the week. I think we’re seeing that preparation and everything that he’s doing through the week come into fruition on Sunday. So he’s done a hell of a job with all that. We put a lot on his plate and try to get him the ball as much as possible. He’s exceeded our expectations and what he brings to our team, the energy and the playmaking ability and all those different things – I mean, I can’t say enough good things.
(On that fourth-down conversion, it looked like he beat a bracket to move the chains for you guys. Just how valuable is that as an offense to have a guy that can be double coverage and make a big catch like that?) – “It’s huge. Especially in the second half, you could just kind of see Tyreek (Hill) wanting to take the game over. It wasn’t even really about plays at that point, it was more about how do we get Tyreek the ball. When he’s in one of those zones like that, we just got to continue to feed him in and let him do his thing.”
(Going off of both questions about WR Tyreek Hill, what kind of player is he off the field? Is he somebody who likes to be challenged? Is he somebody who you can kind of like point in the right direction and let him go? What is it like coaching WR Tyreek Hill?) – “It’s fun. I think at first, we were both kind of feeling each other out with all that stuff. I think as kind of time went on, I realized like how competitive he is. He loves everything being a competition, and he has fun with that. Whether we’re in the meeting room making up games about football and ‘Alright, what’s this coverage,’ point systems – he loves all that stuff. He loves talking trash. I think all of us (are) in there just talking trash. If somebody gets locked up in one-on-ones, he starts playing the song, ‘Got locked up, they won’t let me out.’ (laughter) So anyways, we have some fun with some of that stuff, but just ultra, ultracompetitive. He loves making anything a competition.”
(So like everything is a game? Not a game, but like everything can be turned into a competition? Who sits down first? Who recognizes the coverage?) – “It’s all one big game. It is. (laughter) You’re not wrong with that, but it’s competition, and he loves it. I’m all about it.”
(I noticed that you get active and after it in practice, running sprints sometimes. Where does that motivation come from? What do you think that does for your unit?) – “No, that’s just for me. (laughter) I’m trying to not get too old, trying to stretch out, move around a little bit. So if anything, that’s more for myself and just trying to get my energy going and try not to look like a guy, ‘Oh, he used to play.’ Not ‘Oh, he used to play?’” (laughter)
(We’ve seen over the past couple of weeks some teams play way more zone coverage against you guys, and obviously that’s probably limited the over-the-top plays. What your point of emphasis for the wide receivers as they’re seeing more zone coverages?) – “Whenever we come into zone coverages and stuff, it’s more about understanding coverages, understanding the holes and then understanding how important getting our depths are and the timing with the quarterback with all those plays. I think that’s a big part of what we do as far as against those zones and different things like that. And being able to run the football, making sure we’re on our blocks, on our responsibilities as far as that goes. Then from there, trying to get those guys to creep up and hopefully be able to take a shot, whether it’s intermediate or down the field.”
(As a receiver did you prefer – I mean, it seemed like – I watched you and it seemed like you always found the soft spots. Do you prefer playing zone as opposed to?) – “Absolutely. I didn’t have to work as hard. (laughter) When they’re playing man, defenses have changed. There used to be a guy in front of your face all the time; now, it’s just soft zones and stuff. Shoot, I loved zones.”
(WR Tyreek Hill was explaining yesterday that you’ve helped him with his hand placement and that you’ve helped him maximize yards after catch. Can you explain the coaching point and how hand placement can relate to yards after catch?) – “It’s not so much just the hand placement or anything, it’s more about –it was something that (Head Coach) Mike (McDaniel) had emphasized for a long time and I was kind of like, ‘What?’ And then you start to watch the tape and all those different things. But whenever you’re catching the ball, a lot of receivers want to jump to catch it, and really, a lot of times, that’s when their drops happen. So the guys that have aggressive hands, aggressive feet and running through the ball without having to jump, not only are you not slowing down so the defender can catch up to you, but now you’re able to run through the ball seamlessly without breaking stride and now you just run away from defenders as opposed to jumping and letting them catch up once you get that separation. Catching the ball and drop-stepping in zones, so having your feet ready in those situations to be able to get up the field against zone coverage, you see so many guys sit there square to the ball and then try to run the hoop around the zoning defender. And they’re just too fast, they’re too well-coached to where if you have your feet ready and aggressive hands, aggressive feet, ready to drop step and get up the field.”
(You gave a very thoughtful answer last month about WR Erik Ezukanma. Obviously, coaches and players needing to trust him know where he’ll be, and the same could be said for any rookie receiver. Where is he in that process? Has he earned the trust but it’s just the case that you have reliable veterans ahead of him? Or is he still early in that process?) – “I think I’d be OK with Erik (Ezukanma) being out there if he had to play one position right now. I think we could definitely have him ready for that. But where we’re at right now with the depth and the guys that we have in the room, the opportunity just hadn’t presented itself for Erik. So for him, it’s continuing to learn that system and being on top of all the assignments and still trying to learn every single position. When that opportunity does come, he’ll be ready for it.”
