Head Coach Kevin Stefanski (9.23.24)

Opening Statement:

“Injury front, I don’t have all the updates just yet. Still working through some things. I can tell you, Wyatt Teller has a knee injury. He’ll miss multiple weeks, but I don’t have the full extent just yet. Myles Garrett with his foot injury is day-to-day. And like I mentioned on all those other ones, I’ll update you when we get all the information. Obviously frustrated, disappointed. As you watch the tape, I think there were missed opportunities, certain things that we just have to do in order to win in this league and we didn’t do them. So, disappointed. We’ll learn from it and then we’ll quickly move on. With that, I’ll take any questions.”

 

Yeah, Kevin, I want to ask you about the offensive line. If I’ve done the math right, I think it’s 16 sacks and 42 QB hits through three games. Just from your perspective, setting aside the injury situation, what is going on upfront with the protection issues?

“Yeah, obviously that’s disappointing. You know, we have to be better there and we will be better.”

 

And then defensively, how did you like how they responded in the second half, even with Myles being hobbled? And I realize people are dealing with injuries, but that can’t be easy when your best player isn’t able to give you 100%, 100% of the plays.

“Yeah, I thought the team battled yesterday, certainly the defense. We played well there in that second half. We have a high, high standard ultimately, and we want to play better, but the guys definitely were battling out there.”

 

Two things, Kevin. Number one is even before the injuries hit the offensive line, your game plan did not involve the jumbo formations that you used in Jacksonville. Was that because of the opponent, the game plan, or was it because of the circumstances where you thought you might be thin at offensive line?

“Yeah, I think all the above, Tony (Grossi). I think when you go into game plans, you’re trying to look at things that give you an advantage, maybe attack certain things that they do, maybe defensively. Just with the health of some of our offensive line, it probably wasn’t possible to get some of those guys in those roles, but doesn’t mean that — there’s plenty of things that we can do better, certainly.”

 

And the other thing was the quarterback sneak situation. It seems you’re hesitant to use (Deshaun) Watson on a traditional quarterback sneak. You were shotgun on fourth-and-one. How does that handicap you as a play caller that you have to bring in another quarterback to perform a sneak?

“Yeah, I don’t see it that way at all. I think you see that from around the league, different teams do that. We’ve used different players in there. There’s a bunch of things that you can do in those moments. Obviously, I gotta do a better job for this team in those moments, and we have to do a better job and give those guys some plays to go get the first down there.”

 

Kevin, just wondering, do you feel like in some ways you dodged a bullet a little bit with Myles Garrett being day-to-day? And then also, do you feel like maybe, is Zak Zinter ready to step up into that guard role for you?

“Yes, certainly. With Myles, as you guys know, he’s battling every day, so I feel that he’s going to continue to do that. And then we’ll work through the offensive line, Mary Kay (Cabot), it’s definitely something that’s going to be… We’ll take in more information today, tomorrow, Wednesday, before we know exactly how that’s going to shake out.”

 

 Hey, Kevin, with Myles, you said he was going to have an MRI today. Did he have one?

“Yes.”

 

He said yesterday that it was all — like his whole lower leg. So do you know what he had the MRI on and, like, what you guys are treating primarily?

“Yeah. I wouldn’t get into all the specifics, Scott (Petrak), he’s battling.”

 

Okay. And then with Jed (Wills) coming off the surgery and Dawand (Jones), you know, not 100% with that knee. Why not keep a 9th lineman active yesterday?

“Yeah, I felt pretty comfortable with the guys that we had. That was… losing Wyatt on field goal, those are tough. Those are just some circumstances that you don’t often see. But bottom line is, we felt comfortable with having eight up.”

 

Kevin, I’m going to ask you about third down. It’s been an issue each of the first three games. So do you see a constant problem or what can be done to fix that?

“Yeah, I think it’s, we have to be better there, Jeff (Schudel), and I think a lot of that. You can be better on first and second down to help yourself on third down. I don’t think we’ve been good enough on first and second down. Been in some tough down and distances, or in that case, distances on third down. So that’s just a matter of playing better as an offense, but there’s always things that we’re looking at to try to give our guys a chance.”

 

I had a twofold injury question. With Wyatt, is he a possible IR candidate? And with Myles, I know you said he’s going to continue to battle, but just given the fact that he said that both his feet are bothering him, it’s creating compounding issues. Is there a point or a conversation that needs to be had about shutting him down and allowing whatever he’s dealing with to heal properly so he can be good for the long term?

“Yeah. First part of your question… yes, we’re working through that, that’s a possibility. With Myles, he’s like a lot of our guys on this team. He’s going to battle through these injuries and I expect him to continue to get better.”

 

Hey, Kevin, yesterday when we talked to Deshaun, he mentioned something to the effect of them maybe switching things up with the blitzes. Was there different looks that you guys maybe weren’t expecting or what was going on there with what the (New York) Giants threw at you?

“Yeah, I think early in the season, we’re only three games, yesterday, into these things, so breaking tendencies is a big part of, as you get to know, offenses and defenses when you’re game planning. So they definitely pressured more than they had in the first couple, but that was pretty apparent early that that was their game plan. So you’re always trying to figure out in these games what teams are going to lean into. Whether it’s going to be more coverage, more pressure, whatever it may be. There’s looks that you often see that you don’t game plan for, especially early in the season, and then you just have to make the adjustment in game.”

 

And then how do you think Denzel (Ward) came out of yesterday with the shoulder and everything?

“Yeah, I think he’s good.”

 

Hey, Kevin, what did you see on that fourth-and-one after Jameis (Winston) got stuffed on third-and-one? What did you see on that fourth-and-one play?

“Yeah, we tried to play. We tried earlier in the game, obviously, we can be better. But I know it’s very easy for all of us to say, ‘hey, throw it here’. That’s a tough job that those guys have and I thought Deshaun made a bunch of plays for us. Was putting us in position to try and go make a play to win the game. So there’s going to be plays that he wants back. I know there’s plays I want back, but I think it’s really easy to play that game of, ‘could have done this, would have done that.’ We all have to have to be better.”

 

And what do you think about David Njoku for this week?

“We’ll see. I’ll know more probably Wednesday.”

 

Hey, Kevin. I know, again, so much goes into quarterback play; protection, play calling and whatnot. But when you review the film and watch Deshaun in structure is the feel and kind of the speed of the processing, what it needs to be? He himself said that he’s missed some throws, but when you see him kind of working in structure in those drop back situations, is the feeling of processing and the timing kind of what it needs to be and if not, what needs to improve there?

“Yeah, I think he sees the field really well. I think he is a veteran that’s played in a bunch of games who understands different looks, sees it before we even talk about it on the sideline as he’s come coming off. So I think it is certainly — we have to play better as an offense. That’s really our main focus.”

 

Yeah, Kevin, this is probably very similar to Daniel’s (Oyefusi) question that he just asked, but, there’s a lot of talk about the sacks, eight sacks, 17 hits. How much do you attribute that to the protection and how much of that goes on to Deshaun?

“Yeah, we kind of talked about this, I think before, Mary Kay (Cabot). I think when you’re talking about protection, it’s everybody. It’s from myself, the coaches, the offensive line, tight ends, running backs, wide receivers, quarterbacks. It’s everybody. And everybody has a job to do in order to keep the quarterback clean. So I got to do my part. It’s no secret we can’t let him get hit that many times. That’s not good enough and that will get fixed.”

 

Along the lines of what Daniel (Oyefusi) and Mary Kay (Cabot) asked, in terms of pocket and trying to find kind of an offensive identity here, how challenging has this been? I know it’s early in the season, you got Deshaun coming back off the injury, et cetera. You’ve got offensive line issues now. How hard has it been to kind of figure out what it is exactly you want to do with all this other stuff going on?

“Yeah, I understand the question, Tom (Withers), but I think it’s all part of it. Honestly, I think that’s the NFL for you. Week to week, certain guys are going to be unavailable or you’re going to go up against a different rusher than you saw the week before. So that’s our job, just to find ways to be efficient, find ways to be explosive, regardless of the challenges that you may have.”

 

Defensive question, Kevin. I know you trust all your cornerbacks, but when it comes to Malik Nabers yesterday, was Jim Schwartz just not — your right and left corner, you’re not going to shadow at any point, or was that a consideration at all?

“Those are all things we talk about both during the weekend and in the game. There are certain times that we’ve done that. There are certain times that we have various reasons to play right and left. So it’s always by game plan and it’s really week to week.”

 

So the game plan yesterday was right and left pretty much? 

“Yeah and we mixed it in.”

 

Kevin, I want to ask you about that roughing call. When you watch it on, it’s a two part question, watch it on tape, was it the right call?

“Yeah, I think it was and we have to be better there. Greg (Newsome II) knows that you can’t go up near the quarterback’s head and neck area. We got to stay in that strike zone. That’s a tough play because that’s a turnover right there, so we will be better. And again, not a lack of effort at all, but I did think that was a roughing call.”