Head Coach Kevin Stefanski (11.1.24)
Opening Statement:
“Okay, excited to be back in front of our fans Sunday. AFC opponent, good team, so going to be a great challenge for this football team. We’re excited for it. Take any questions you guys got.”
How did you see Joel (Bitonio) respond out there to the foot, especially with the cooler temperatures today?
“Yeah, I thought he looked better. He’s obviously like a lot of guys at this point in November football, you’re not feeling perfect, but he’s feeling better I think.”
With Denzel (Ward), does he still need one more hurdle to cross in the protocol?
“That’s right.”
Tomorrow will be the day?
“Correct.”
What was it like though to see him back out there today and making good progress?
“Yeah, great to see Denzel out there. He’s been engaged in the meetings and the walkthroughs, those type of things. So, he’s doing a nice job staying on top of everything.”
Kevin, has Jeremiah (Owusu-Koramoah) been around the building this week?
“Yes, he has.”
How’s he doing?
“He’s doing better. Obviously, he continues to talk to the doctors and work through the rehab and all those types of things, but he’s doing better.”
I thought I saw Nick Chubb yesterday leading the stretching. Like without Deshaun (Watson) have you named him captain?
“I did. I named him a season long captain with Deshaun not out there.”
Have you talked to Deshaun since the surgery? Like where is he? How’s he doing?
“Yes, he’s rehabbing. That’s a tough surgery, but he’s doing well. He’s scooting around the building. So, he’s going to, like he always does, he’ll attack that thing. Attack the rehab.”
Do you plan to stay with Dawand (Jones) at left tackle Sunday?
“Well, we have options that we’ve talked about, so we’ll see.”
I’m sorry, where is Deshaun right now?
“He’s here.”
What have you seen from those (Los Angeles) Chargers tackles? I thought I saw a stat about like (Joe) Alt had led pressure in the last couple of weeks.
“They’re very good, they’re very talented. First round picks for a reason. Size, length, play with great base, powerful. Very impressed with that group.”
Do you anticipate elevating Kadarius Toney for Sunday’s game?
“We’ll see. We have — again all those roster decisions we’ll make in the next few days.”
I know we’ve talked about this a little bit before, but the fact that these guys are only holding teams to 13 points, and they held Kansas City to only 17. How do you approach this game, and do you know you just have to be super aggressive and explosive and all that?
“Well, they’re holding teams to 13 points for a reason. They’re very, very sound. They’re very, very physical. They play well situationally. They’re good in the red zone. I think they have the fewest snaps in the red zone than anybody. So, they’re playing at a very high level.”
How have you seen the linebackers room respond this week, especially with all the injuries that group has faced?
“That’s a very tight knit group and they’re sticking together obviously with a couple guys not available. But they push each other, they support each other. So, it’s a group that wants the best from that whole room. We have some older guys in there and some younger guys in there and they are pushing each other.”
Did Khaleke Hudson get hurt in practice today?
“Yesterday, yeah.”
Was Jordan Hicks at all a possibility to play in this game throughout the week?
“I’d say with him it’s a day-to-day injury. So just kind of checking in each day, seeing how he’s feeling.”
Has Deshaun articulated that he’s going to battle back and fight back from his injury and try to come back strong?
“Of course. I mean if you know him, you know he’s come back from injury before. So that’s how he’s wired. He’s going to work very hard. But that’s — early on in those surgeries it’s tough because you got to wait till so you can really do anything.”
I know linebackers are important every week, but the fact that the Chargers go with a fullback and running a bunch, like does that put more stress on the guys especially missing two of your guys?
“Obviously you miss players when you don’t have them in there, but it’s important that we play sound defense from the defensive line to the linebackers to the defensive backs. This is a very good offensive unit. Like you mentioned, they play very physical. There’s play action, there’s the run game, there’s screens off of it. So, it’s a difficult offense to defend.”
People have been talking all week about obviously the intangibles you have with a Jim Harbaugh coached team. Just how do you see that physicality on the film so far from them?
“Yeah, they do a nice job. I mean I think from their offense, defense and special teams they’re well coached. They use a full back at defensive tackle who plays both ways for them. That’s something that you’ve seen from Baltimore over the years. So, they can play the guard, pull, power run game, obviously. But they have a variety of runs to their system, so it’s not like they just do one thing.”
You have a full complement of running backs available to you this week. How do you feel about how you approach that?
“I feel good about that group, Mary Kay (Cabot). It’s good to get Jerome (Ford) back out there. Obviously, he gives us another dimension to that running back group, but I feel good about those guys.”
Dawand talked a little bit about the conversation you guys had before when he was starting, and he missed a couple weeks and just how maybe that kind of benefited him. Just how do you think those two weeks off sort of allowed him to, especially with the knee injury he had coming into the season, sort of get himself right?
“Yeah, I think with young players, you’re always looking to improve and get better. Sometimes it’s you improve when you’re playing, sometimes you improve when you take a week off for whatever the reason is, or maybe you’re out due to injury. So, I just think he’s using every rep every day to just try and get better.”