Head Coach Kevin Stefanski (10.9.24)
Opening Statement:
“Okay, starting our work week for the (Philadelphia) Eagles. Obviously good football team, very well coached on all three sides of the ball. Good players up and down the roster. So, have to have a good week of preparation for this one and we’re getting started in that vein. But with that, I’ll take any questions.”
Kevin, in terms of the guys that aren’t practicing today, anybody else that you’re not sure about? I’m thinking (David) Njoku and maybe Nick Chubb, where he’s at?
“Yeah, I think really with all the guys, and Nick especially, it’s really a day-to-day thing. See how they come out of today. Let’s see how they do Thursday. Not going to rush any decisions.”
On that subject, Kevin, when Jack Conklin got hurt that Friday before the (New York) Giants game, you said it was a minor setback. So, has something happened that exacerbated to make him miss three games?
“No, like I said, minor setback. He’s working hard to make it this week.”
What about Michael Hall, could he be ready for this game?
“Could be. Very similar, I need to see him practice. A lot of these guys, for Mike, it will be the first time practicing. So just want to see him this week before we make any determinations.”
Would you expect Nick to do more this week?
“I would. Just naturally, yes.”
Any of the guys that aren’t practicing today ruling out for Sunday? Denzel (Ward), Ethan (Pocic), Charley (Hughlett).
“I’d say Charley’s unlikely.”
Grant (Delpit)?
“We’ll see. Yeah, I’d say we’ll see on all those guys.”
What are the long snapper plans if Charley’s not available?
“We have a guy who’s local who can come help us. Bay Village Rocket. Yeah, Rex (Sunahara) would be the guy.”
Kevin, will you change any play-calling operation of this game?
“We look at everything every week, Tony (Grossi), and whether it’s scheme, whether it’s personnel, whether it’s how we call it. So there’s things that we’ve looked at this week and things that we know we can do better. I’m comfortable with the amount of collaboration we have right now on the headset and how we operate. So that won’t change. But I do want to emphasize that it’s — number one, we’re constantly looking at things that we can do better. But number two, this is a collective effort from players and coaches to make sure that we are playing better on offense.”
This confusion that’s happened in these games, what are you doing to kind of clean that up to make sure that it’s not happening in these critical situations?
“Yeah, again, I think that’s my job, coaches, our job, players, that’s our job. We have to execute, and you got to execute really at all times, Daryl (Ruiter). It can’t be just the first couple plays, just the last couple plays. You have to be great for 60 minutes or more.”
When did Denzel’s hamstring injury happen? Because it seemed like he was out of series but he was in on extra point block.
“I think it must have started bothering him at some point during the game, but I don’t know the exact moment.”
Any of the IR guys from week one coming back this week?
“Yeah, potentially, yes. We’re going to open the practice window and see on a few guys, but it’s really hard to make that determination until I see them practice.”
But guys will practice today?
“Yes.”
So I know there’s a lot of variables here and you’ve had some protection problems, etcetera, but there are times where Deshaun (Watson) just does not look comfortable in the pocket. How can you clean that up?
“Yeah, I think there’s definitely moments that the pocket’s clean and we can deliver from the pocket and Deshaun has done that and knows that. There’s other times that we have to shore it up and when it comes to pass protection, I think I’ve told you guys this before, it’s not just the offensive line. It can certainly be your running backs and your tight ends. It can be you were playing on time in the pass game, so your receiver isn’t getting open, those type of things. So, it’s an area that we have to get better, no doubt, and I think Deshaun understands that as well. And I think he’s committed to getting better as well.”
In terms of Nick, could you conceivably go through the week and see how he does and maybe activate him later in the week, on Friday or something?
“Yeah, I’d say anything’s possible, but I’m really so focused with Nick on today. Just see how he looks today. I don’t want to get too far out.”
When you look at the clips of, I think down there at the end zone when everything got messed up, but Jerry Jeudy was wide open on the left side, how does Deshaun not see that?
“Yeah, listen, I know you can take out plays and look at that and there’s obviously plays that Deshaun wants back. There’s calls that I want back. That happens in the course of a game. We just have to do our best from a coaching perspective, from a player’s perspective, to execute what’s out there. But I don’t know that it’s, having called a perfect game, I don’t think anybody’s played a perfect game just yet.”
Was there even a thought or conversation had about possibly sitting Deshaun out this week?
“No.”
I wanted to ask about the adjustments that you guys can make on the practice field when things aren’t going your way. But what kind of adjustments can you make maybe in the classroom and in the film room to get things going the right way?
“Yeah, I think you can look at how you install, look at how you walk through. I think everything that goes into the process of getting a football team ready for Sunday, you have to look at all of it to make sure that you’re — again, I think it just goes back to you want guys to play freely, you want them to play without thinking. So we have to look at our entire process.”
You’ve had a lot of issues up front with injuries and that. Just what is your view now that we’re a couple weeks into the season and the sample size is a little bigger as far as how the protection’s looking up front?
“Yeah, we need to do better. That’s obvious. And it’s, again, it’s not a one person needs to do better, or one position needs to do better, or players or coaches. We, underline W, E. We just need to better.”
With some of the tackling issues you guys have had on defense, just looking at the Eagles, what is a guy like Saquon Barkley, how’s he going to test you?
“Yeah, he’s outstanding, Ashley (Bastock). He’s a player that we have a ton of respect for. You know how dangerous he is with the ball in his hands. He has a unique running style and how he jump cuts, but he also has the speed to hit that gear. I was with Adrian Peterson for a bunch of years. It reminds me of that type of style of running. But he’s a great player.”
Kevin, the interior, the two Georgia kids, (Jalen) Carter and (Jordan) Davis. What type of challenge do they specifically present, especially with the questions you have at right guard?
“I would tell you they’re very, very powerful. Powerful and disruptive, right in the middle of the pocket in the pass game, right in the middle of what you’re doing in the run game. So, they do a very nice job schematically of having those guys attack and they’re just big, physical football players. They’re good.”
I know you spend a ton of time with Deshaun on a weekly basis, but when people are questioning whether or not he should be the starter, and one of the Washington guys said he looked like he lacked confidence, do you feel a need to sit down with him to discuss what’s going on?
“Yeah, I talk to Deshaun every week, every day. I talk to a bunch of our players. I think respectfully, we have to focus on what’s going on inside of our building and not necessarily pay attention to what’s going on outside the building.”
Kevin, when you look at what Jalen Hurts does at quarterback and how he acts under pressure, how can you guys take advantage of that as a defense?
“He’s outstanding. Having watched a lot of his games and just seeing how he operates, he’s a threat in multitude of ways; can make every throw, has made every throw, hey have talented players on the perimeter, they have a talented tight end, he’s a part of their RPO game. When it’s not there, he can pull it down and run. So, he just operates really well. Whether it’s pressure, no pressure, he sees it clearly is a very talented young man.”
Where would you say Deshaun is confidence wise right now?
“Yeah, it’s hard for me to single out our players in confidence. I think we as a team need to do better, we as in offense, defense, special teams. That’s really our focus, less so confidence, if you will. We just have to play better.”
In terms of Zak Zinter, he’s kind of had a little bit about baptism by fire with the guys he’s had to go against in the first two weeks. And once again, we just talked about two more stout interior guys coming up. Is he somebody that you think could benefit from maybe a platoon situation or some help or anything like that?
“I think he’s continuing to get better, Mary Kay (Cabot). I think, like you mentioned, he’s a young player going against some good players, but he’s had good moments. And I think that’s just with any young player, you have to learn from everything, learn from the good moments, learn from the bad moments, and just really focus on technique over everything.”
How do you feel about separation with the receiver group? And the second part of that is how do you keep that position group’s heads up so they don’t get into that funk?
“We just have to play better. We have to, you name it, we got to do it better. Certainly we have receivers that we want to get the ball to spread the ball around, that’s no secret. I think any team’s at its best when the ball is being spread around to different guys. So we just have to sustain some drives so we can do that.”
When you don’t have a bye week, do you have time to break it down and fix it the way that it needs to sort of be?
“Yeah, I think you do that every week, Mary Kay (Cabot). Certainly you can do it on a four-week basis. A lot of teams will do that. But every single week we’re looking at a self-scout, if you will.”
How did Charley Hughlett get that rib injury?
“I think it was friendly fire by one of our guys got him.”
MJ (Martin Emerson Jr.) was so good those first few years and he’s had some struggles in the first, whatever, handful of games. What have you guys identified as maybe going on there?
“Yeah, MJ is a good player. He’s played really well for us. It’s an occupational hazard in this league if you’re playing corner, you’re going to get beat a few times. He bounces back. He has the right mindset. We expect him to make plays for us and he’ll do that.”