HC Kevin Stefanski (8.12.23)
Opening Statement:
“On the injury front, unfortunately Jacob Phillips is going to be out for the season with a torn pec that’s going to require surgery. Very, very disappointed for the young man. Know he’s battled injuries, but he has a very strong will so I know he will bounce back from this. With the other injuries we have some guys who are day to day that we’ll learn more about as these days go on and that type of thing. But like we talked about last night, I thought some really, really good things happened for us in that game to teach off of – offense, defense and special teams. I thought there were a bunch of different situations that we were in and different things come up when you’re playing different schemes for us to teach and for us to talk through. That was really valuable stuff and we’ll get the team in here tomorrow, meet on that film, we’ll get a workout, then we’re jumping on an airplane heading to Philadelphia. Practice versus the Eagles a couple times next week as we go into that game Thursday night. But with that, I’ll take any questions.”
Starting here about Jacob (Phillips). Did you see exactly what happened, what kind of play that was?
“I did not.”
As far as Cade (York) did, we talked to you a little bit about that last night. From your standpoint, I know there’s a lot of mechanisms that go into making a kick – snap, hold all that timing. Does everything else seem to be working okay? I mean, is there any kind of common thread here to these couple of misses? And I know it’s a small sample size.
“Yeah, no, I don’t think there’s a common thread, Tom (Withers). I think to your point, it’s a small sample size. Going to continue to work. Cade’s working very hard, just like the rest of our team is. I think it’s preseason football for all of us. None of us are ready to play or coach in that first game just yet. So, we’re working through it.”
Hey, Kevin, real quick on Jacob, is it the same arm as last year?
“It’s not.”
And just how hard is it when you see a guy go through the string of injuries like he has?
“That’s the worst. It’s the worst part of this game. Seeing guys get injured and especially you see them, how hard they work. So it hurts. I hurt for Jacob, and this is why we’re teammates and why we support each other. But yeah, worst part of the game.”
I wanted to ask you, I know you coaches tried to conceal things in your offense this time of year, and we, who are at practice, see Elijah Moore all over the place anyway. Did you not feel that was worth concealing? The plays, the hand off to him and the run of the pass pattern?
“Yeah, to that point, Tony (Grossi), I’m sure it’s been well reported that we want to use the kid in a bunch of different ways. Teams know that we’ll hand it to him, that we’ll throw it to him. As you know, there’s no shortage of plays. There’s a thousand things you can do with versatile football players. So to think that, you know, you’re giving your opponent part of your offense, you hold plenty of stuff. So what you show in games – in these preseason games, really should be the tip of the iceberg.”
Hey, Kevin, just to go back to Cade here. I know he’s talked about the mental part and working through that. Just how have you guys seen him handle that part of being in the NFL?
“Yeah, I think Cade’s got the makeup for that role. As you know, he works very hard at his craft. It’s also part of being a player in the NFL and certainly part of being a kicker in the NFL is you got to bounce back from a miss. And I think he did that in the game last night. So, really, that’s what I expect from all of our guys.”
Hey, Kevin wanted to ask you about Nick Harris a little bit and just what you’ve seen from him, and specifically the mental and emotional growth you’ve seen out of him coming back from that injury?
“Yeah, Nick, he’s a great teammate. He pushes guys, he supports guys. He’s another guy you talk about injuries that has bounced back and worked really hard to put himself where he is right now. He’s great in our meeting room. He’s a younger player, but he does everything the right way. I think he’s a great person for our young players to look up to see a guy that really works on his craft, but he’s a guy that plays a really important role for us.”
Hey, Kevin, I want to go back to Elijah and sort of the different ways you use him. You were in Minnesota when Percy Harvin was there. Do you kind of go back to those days? Is there some influence there with how you guys use Percy, with how you want to use a guy like Elijah a little bit?
“Yeah, I mean, I was with Percy. Coach (Bill) Musgrave was with Percy. Kevin Rogers was Percy. We had Cordarrelle Patterson in Minnesota as well. So really, it just speaks to versatility. I mean, AVP (Alex Van Pelt) had Randall Cobb. When you have guys, it’s the classic, the more you can do. And I think for us, we’re early on in being around Elijah, so what is fun is there’s no shortage of what he can do, I think physically, but also just mentally. You can put a lot on his plate. So that’s the fun part for us in trying to just make ourselves difficult to defend from the defense.”
Hey, Kevin, I want to ask you about a couple of defensive guys. We haven’t asked you about Shelby Harris. What was attractive about him and where do you think he fits from a role perspective given think he spent a lot of time in a three, four?
“Yeah. Productive football player. Has been very disruptive in his career. I’ve gone against him. Has had an interesting career. Really started out – didn’t play a ton early in his career but has really come on. Played very meaningful snaps and good snaps for a bunch of good defenses. So, we’ll see where he fits. We just got him in the building, getting him around our guys. Certainly, know that he has the ability to play in our scheme, but really a productive veteran.”
Yeah, but it looked like Josh Dobbs was pressured a lot, took some hits in his time on the field. Have you reviewed the performance of the second team offensive line, and how did they do?
“Yeah, I thought protection really was pretty good all night, Tony (Grossi), and especially early. They have some guys that can really rush the passer. So, I thought the guys did a nice job. Never perfect. We definitely gotten some empty sets and really challenged the offensive line at times. And we won our fair share. They got theirs. But I thought the quarterbacks did a really nice job of navigating some pockets and moving forward and making plays with their feet.”
I wanted to ask about David Bell, too. He had a nice night last night. What have you sort of seen out of him in year two and kind of how he’s adjusted to playing in the slot over the last couple of years?
“Yeah, very dependable player. Made plays last night. I thought had a really nice route, especially in that two-minute drive to get out of bounds. And then I don’t know if it was on that play, but (he) had another catch, and you see him picking up the ball and running it right to the middle of the field because it’s a two-minute drive. As he’s taught – he’s doing exactly what he’s taught to do, is get the ball back to the middle so we can snap it. So, you just see a very smart, heady football player. Good hands, made the play down there on the goal line versus max pressure. Great throw by Dorian (Thompson-Robinson), great catch by him.”
(Ronnie) Hickman is flashed a little bit. Can you give us your impressions on him so far?
“Yeah Ronnie, like really a lot of these rookies, Tom (Withers). It’s an impressive rookie class from a intelligence standpoint, and Ronnie certainly fits in that group and knowing where to go and what to do and just the ability. You can’t do your job if you don’t know your job. And he’s a young man that really works hard at knowing what to do. So that puts himself in position, and I think he’s got really good ball skills and that was evident last night.”
Kevin, your first interview in Greenbrier, you kind of outlined your playtime in general for these four games and the Philly game. You weren’t expecting to play any starters. Does that hold true?
“Yeah, that’s our plan, Tony. We’ll use these practices to get the ones and twos a lot of reps, and then it’ll be primarily backups in the game Thursday night.”
Will the format be the same as last year, or have you and Nick (Sirianni) changed things up somewhat?
“Yeah, it’s really the host is in charge of putting the structure together, so to speak, and the practice plan. So, we’re the guests. We show up and do what we’re told. But Nick and that whole organization are great to work with. But I thought we got a ton of really good work done last season when they came here. So, we’re looking forward to doing the same this season when we go there.”
Are there any specific things you’re looking to get out of those joint practices that you saw last year and that you thought these things were valuable?
“Yeah, I think for us, the big thing is going against a different scheme. Sean Desai is their defense coordinator, comes from the Vic Fangio family of defense. That’s really good for us to get some reps in that because it presents different issues from a coverage standpoint and certainly from a front standpoint. So that’s helpful. And then that offense versus our defense. You get tested with a great quarterback, some really unbelievable outside players, a big offensive line. So, it really is a good matchup for us to go against from a schematic and just a really good football team. This is a Super Bowl runner up that we’re going against.”
Yeah, I just wanted to check on something with Elijah (Moore). We know he got the X-rays yesterday on the ribs, and they came back negative. Is he good to go this week in those practices?
“Yeah, I think we’ll see. I’d call him day to day. I’m hopeful, but I want to get there before I can make that comment.”
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