Head Coach Kevin Stefanski (11.27.23)
Opening statement:
“Okay, injuries. Amari (Cooper), like I told you, X-rays are negative. Think he’ll be okay, working through that this week. Jordan Elliott, similar with the ankle, day-to-day, but feel good about where he is. Myles (Garrett) with the shoulder is sore, but feel good about where he’ll be. But day-to-day. And then Dorian (Thompson-Robinson), like we talked about last night, we’ll just continue to work through the protocol and make sure obviously, you’re following every step of that. With the game, you watch it afterwards and we just didn’t do enough of those things that you have to do to win on the road. Way too sloppy with the football, having the ball on the ground five times, turning it over like we did. Those are giveaways, giving the game away, and we can’t do that. And that’s the things that we really have to focus on moving forward is taking care of that rock and then defensively, like we mentioned, they got some runs on us, which we will correct because as you know, those are things that will keep showing up until you stop them. And we feel real good about our plan moving forward, but plenty to clean up, plenty to correct, but just you’re not going to win on the road when you play like we played, which was obviously disappointing. So now the focus shifts right away to the (Los Angeles) Rams and how we can correct some of these things and better on Sunday. And with that, I’ll take any questions.”
Kevin, you said Myles is sore, but you feel good about where he is. So the scans you had today revealed no structural issues, and as long as he’s comfortable playing from a pain perspective, he should be good to go for Sunday?
“Yes, sir.”
Hey, Kevin, a lot’s been made about the run pass imbalance yesterday. What were you seeing from the Broncos that made you kind of maybe throw the ball a little bit more and maybe surprise some people a little bit?
“Yeah, I think we go into every game, Tom (Withers), and you have a plan for things that they’re going to do, and then sometimes they show you things that you have to adjust. We felt like we had some good opportunities there, both in the run and the pass game. We had some missed opportunities, unfortunately, and that’s the frustrating part of [it], we have to hit some of those opportunities again, both in the run and the pass to score more points.”
I know you’re trying to go 1-0 every week. Was part of your thinking, though, trying to get DTR confident not only yesterday, but obviously going forward, considering that he’s potentially going to start for the rest of the season?
“Yeah, I think with any young player, you’re always going to bring them along at a specific pace. I thought he did some really good things yesterday. Obviously, there’s always things that you can clean up, and it’s rookie stuff. There are different reads and footwork, whatever it may be, but he made a bunch of plays for us, so unfortunate to lose him due to injury.”
Hey, Kevin, so with DTR still in the protocol, where would you say you stand in quarterback as far as getting ready for Sunday?
“Yeah, we’ll work through all that this week, Scott (Petrak). As you can imagine, we have P.J. (Walker), we have Joe (Flacco) if Dorian’s not available.”
And with Dorian being a rookie, would he need to practice the whole week to be able to play, or could he clear late in the week and be good to go?
“Yeah, hard to say. I’m going to let the protocol play out.”
Kevin, I know every week you guys preach that ball, security, taking care of the ball. Sunday seemed to have a lot of penalties. What do you do approaching that this week to try to clean that up and make sure that doesn’t carry over to LA?
“Yeah, unfortunately, a lot of those defensive penalties negated some good plays, and that’s the frustrating part that we have to clean up. We’ll work very hard at the aligned offsides, those shouldn’t happen and we’ll be better this week.”
Kevin, just wondering what would you need to see from Joe to make you feel comfortable that he’s ready to start a game in the event that you need him to do that for you?
“Yeah, I think with all of our players that you get during the season, Mary Kay (Cabot). Obviously, you work with them in the meeting rooms out on the practice field, see where they are, but we’ll see where it goes, where this week goes based on, obviously, Dorian’s health.”
How did Joe seem to pick things up last week? I know it was just a brief encounter with him, but how did he seem to be integrating and acclimating?
“Yeah, he works very hard at it. Again, P.J. went through a very similar thing where you get here and it’s crash course and you spend extra time with the playbook and with the coaches and get up to speed as quickly as you can.”
Kevin, since taking this job, I think you’ve had every quarterback problem imaginable that you’ve had to deal with and you’re back in the same spot here. How do you get ready for a game not knowing who’s going to be available to you, or do you, in your mind, have an idea of where things are headed and you just want to kind of keep it to yourself?
“Well, I mean, we don’t announce really starters at any position on a Monday. So those are always things when it comes to depth chart that you work through. You just have the week to work through those type of things. So that’s what we’ll do as it pertains to who’s available. That’s how the NFL operates. That’s how we operate. It changes week to week. That’s just how it is.”
And how do you solve this drop passes thing that has kind of popped up here in the last couple of weeks? And what do you think the genesis of that? Because you guys have been really good catching the football until recently.
“Yeah, to us, Daryl (Ruiter), it always comes back to technique. I don’t think you can simply say to somebody, ‘Hey, catch the ball.’ I think you have to talk about the things that go into catching the ball, the act of catching, and there’s all those coaching points, there’s all those things that you’ve been taught your whole life, and we’ll continue to coach them up because those are certainly correctable.”
How did you think JOK (Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah) and the other linebackers sort of filled in without Anthony (Walker Jr.) on the field yesterday?
“Yeah, there were obviously some really good moments. I thought Jeremiah in particular was all over the field. He was very productive, making plays sideline to sideline. Obviously made a huge play for us on that fourth down, knocking the ball out. So he has been making big plays for us all season, but in particular, he really stepped up yesterday.”
I think Dorian has played three games, and you guys have scored two touchdowns in three games with him. Why do you feel he’s capable of shouldering the burden with such each game being so critical going forward? Why do you trust him to steer this ship home as a starting quarterback?
“Yeah, I would just tell you any young player, Tony (Grossi), that you put in there and you’re continuing to coach and bring them along again. Disappointed that he got hurt in yesterday’s game, disappointed that play occurred, but we’ll just keep bringing our young guys along.”
And one other question is, now that (Deshaun) Watson is unavailable, could any of your existing quarterbacks execute a quarterback sneak, or do you have to rely on the tight end?
“All things that we’ll work through. Again, that ball was on the ground. That’s unfortunate. That hasn’t happened this season, so we’ll continue to work through it.”
Coach, your starting running back, (Jerome) Ford, had only nine carries, and he was averaging over seven yards of carry. Is there some opportunities where he may get some more carries and you all become a more ground based team? Because it seems that’s the one thing that this team does well, and that’s run the ball. Thank you.
“Yeah, I thought Jerome gave us some really good moments in the run game, in the pass game. Had a couple of nice plays there in a two-minute drive. We’re going to count on him every single week. As you know, we like our running back room and we like to share the ball, for sure.”
I know you’ve been asked a lot about Joe Flacco today while you’re working through all of these different situations, but my question is more about skill set. Joe’s obviously a little bit further in his career, right. Been around a long time, maybe not quite as mobile as Deshaun or Dorian is. How does Joe’s current skill set match what you want to get out of a quarterback in your offensive structure if he is forced to play?
“Yeah, I think it just goes back to any player at any position. You play to their strengths. Like you mentioned, obviously Joe is a different style of quarterback than Dorian or P.J., so we would have to adjust with any player at that position based on their skill set.”
Is that an easy thing to do, midseason, when you have something that feels a bit more drastic, or are we making too much of that and you see more commonalities than maybe we do?
“I think, you know, offensively, you have to be able to win in a variety of ways. So, we will always just play to the strengths of the quarterback.”
Yeah, Kevin, just I’m assuming that you guys are going to have an opportunity to spend some time with Deshaun Watson since he’s out here rehabbing. So my first question was about him. What kind of lift do you think that might be able to give the guys to see him?
“Yeah. Obviously, Deshaun rehabbing here, with having his surgery here, so it works out well that we’ll be able to see him and he’ll be able to be around the team and that’s always important. You know a guy like Deshaun, I think it’s always important for him.”
To be around his then, you know, just seeing Nick Chubb in the locker room yesterday, why did you think it was important, even though he’s know fresh off of his surgery, to come out here and be a part of this with you guys?
“Well, he gets to rehab with us, and that’s part as his rehab process continues with us. But again, nice to have Nick around.”
Kevin, assuming that the DTR is not back by Wednesday, are you going to split the first team reps between Joe and P.J.? Do you have a sense of how that is going to go as you figure out the quarterback play?
“Yeah, I’d say we’re working through it, Jake (Trotter). We really just finished meetings with the players now, so we’ll work through all those things.”
Hey, Kevin. I know we talked about it in the past, but what did it say about Myles for him to be able to fight through that yesterday and then continue to want to finish the season despite being in what seems like a lot of pain?
“He’s a leader of this football team. He was elected captain for a reason. He plays hard. That’s what we’re going to have to do this week. So he sets the example that way. But it’s the NFL. It’s almost December. Guys are playing banged up. It’s just how it works. But he sets a great example for this football team.”
And you mentioned the run defense issues. What did you think were the biggest problems that the Broncos were able to exploit?
“Yeah, they did a couple of things that were good, obviously schematically. But as you know, in this game, you always have counter moves to those things. We got to them. We feel confident that we can play sound. And it can always be from alignment, it can be from assignment, it can be technique. So those are all things that we’ll work hard on this week.”
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