Head Coach Kevin Stefanski (5.12.23)
Opening statement:
Okay, good first day. Always fun to got these guys in the building. Got them here yesterday, started that process. Obviously, with them getting to know this system, them getting to know each other, us getting to know these players–it’s a fun process. I love the team meeting of rookie minicamp because everybody’s in there 15 minutes early. Notebooks are open, pens are in their hands, so you tell them to do something. These guys are ready to go. It’s a good group. Got some good work out there today. Nice and warm for us. Then, we’ll kind of go through a similar program tomorrow and then we’ll get them out of here on Sunday. But really good work to start off this rookie minicamp.
Kevin, what was your reaction when you saw the schedule and you had three division opponents in the first month?
Yeah, I think it’s great. I mean, as you guys know, you don’t control the schedule. You’re ready to play wherever they tell you to play. I think it’s a unique thing to have the three division opponents in the first four weeks. I believe we’re the only team that has that in the NFL, and I look at it as a great opportunity.
Does it cause you to adjust anything about your training camp?
I think we’ll get there. Not yet, no. I do think the one unique part there is having coordinators that you’ve gone against. They’ve gone against us. We’ve gone against them quite a bit over the last few years. I’m talking with Cincinnati and with Pittsburgh back to back, but it remains to be seen how much we adjust going through training camp and the preseason.
Continued:
Yeah, I don’t know about workload. I don’t care who the first two opponents are, that’s going to be tough. It just always is. The fact that it’s a division opponent really means they know us really well. We know them really well. So it’s going to be interesting to see what type of adjustments both sides make.
Kevin, your thoughts on Deshaun Watson going to Puerto Rico. First off, did he discuss that with you? What do you think about that?
He did, but as you know, voluntary program. I’m very appreciative of the guys that are here and working here. When the guys decide that they want to get together and be a team, I’m very, very much in favor of that.
Did you give them a script of things you’d like them to do on the field?
I don’t know if we’re allowed to.
What were your first impressions of some of the earlier picks from today? How did Cedric look?
Yeah, I think they did a nice job. As you can imagine, it’s like drinking through a fire hose for these guys when it’s the amount of information that we’re thrown at them. So just breaking the huddle, getting lined up, can be a challenge. You mentioned Ced, he was really good getting out of the huddle. I thought DTR did a very nice job in the huddle, explaining where everybody’s lining up, getting them out of the huddle, called the plays really, really well. It’s elementary. I mean, we’re really football 101 right now in terms of scheme, but it’s a new language and it’s easy for me to say because I’ve been around this language, but I think they’re all working really hard.
Did Dawand come out ok?
Yeah, he’s doing just fine.
Dorian mentioned that he felt like there were some similarities between the offense he ran with Chip and what you guys do. Would you agree? And if so, what ways?
I think there’s elements to what they did. There’s really elements to a lot of college offense to what we do and what we have in our system. Teams are a lot more similar than they are dissimilar, I would think. There’s definitely plays that have stood the test of time, that show up in high school and college and the pros and are part of what we do. And then, it’s just a matter of the nuances that differentiate you.
Dorian said he was better received than Cedric, at least at the start.
Maybe. I’ll say this, that’s such a cool story and a cool thing, to be able to bring your high school buddy with you to work every day. Those two are inseparable in the building, so far. They’re kind of walking around together, and I think it helps. It helps that they play a position where they’re talking to each other quite a bit, so they can study together, those type of things.
Do you enjoy having fewer players on the field?
Yeah, I mean, there’s different ways to do it. I’ve been around the rookie mini camps where you bring in 70 guys and you’re doing full team drills and seven on seven. Those type of things. For us, we just feel like the best thing to do is to slow it down. It’s the basics. It’s how to get into a stance, how to come out of your stance. So it’s really very entry-level stuff, if you will. But that’s what we’re here to do. It’s skill development. It’s fundamentals, techniques, right now, is the focus.
Calling plays in the huddle. Dorian didn’t do that at UCLA, right? Is that the immediate project with him?
Yeah. Honestly, I don’t think it’s a challenge. I don’t see that as a problem or an issue for him. He’s very intelligent. He did it at the East-West Shrine Game and had no problems. He’s a smart kid.
Kevin with Dawand, how did he look and how did you think he moved?
Again, day one for these guys. I mean, literally, Bill has him in his stance, putting his weight on his right foot or his outside foot or where he wants his hand placement. So it’s very entry-level football right now for him, and I thought he did a nice job. It’s going to be a challenge for all these guys. We’re going to ask them to use technique that’s a little bit different, really, at every position, and he’s very receptive to that.
Back to the schedule. Are you ready to say what you’re going to do between Denver and LA?
It’s not finalized yet, but that’s definitely something that we’re considering, is staying out there in LA after Denver.
Why do you think it’s going to be a benefit? Just eliminate a trip?
Yeah, I think eliminating a trip, from a rest and recovery standpoint, and then I think it’s never a bad thing when you can get your team together in a setting.
What about some of the vets here and just what you’ve seen, some of the development?
Yeah, I think it’s such a great benefit, to be able to have those guys out here. A lot of this, they’ve heard often, so them breaking the huddle maybe is not the big challenge, but they get one-on-one work with their coaches. Think about the wide receivers. Think about coach Callahan here. They get smaller groups that they can really hone in and teach these young men, and they’re doing a nice job. It’s a great opportunity for them to be able to attend this.
Kevin, we haven’t talked to you since you guys drafted Wypler. What did you guys like about him throughout the process?
Yeah, good football player. Played a lot of good football for them down there in Columbus. Tough, very intelligent. Scrappy, just fits in with what we do. So I think it’s a nice player to have for coach Callahan, coach Peters, coach Decoster to get their hands on.
Kevin, he told us that he liked the chess game of football, playing center. Have you gotten a chance to kind of see that in him a little bit?
Not yet. I think centers, by nature, oftentimes are really intelligent guys because you’re making a lot of adjustments at the line of scrimmage when it comes to protection and the run game and those type of things. So we ask a lot of our centers. I think Ethan and Nick do a great job in that area. So in that regard, he’ll fit right in.
The early bye week and having that Week 5, what are the challenges going to be of having it come that early?
I don’t know that there’s challenges. I think they put the bye or they put the games wherever they are. I don’t know that re-ordering the games or re-ordering the bye makes the schedule much different from my perspective. It’s just we’re kind of next game mentality. So if the bye is when it is, we’ll take a breather when it shows up.
Kevin you said that in training camps last year, you send some of these guys home with homework and you give them projects to take with them. Does that happen in rookie minicamp and what does that look like for these guys?
Yeah, for sure it happens. And what we try to do is we send them home tonight with some study materials, if you will, and they’re going to be responsible for some things that we’ll quiz them on in the morning because they’re tired, so they’re going to go back to the hotel. I promise you they’ll sleep well tonight. But while they’re getting ready to go to bed, grab the playbook, take a peek at the iPad and see if they can really just be students of the game in that regard. And that’s part of teaching these young men how to be pros. And a big part of being a pro is what you do when you’re outside of this building.
Is part of this to show them what kind of shape they are going to need to be in when they come back for veteran practice?
That’s not the intention. We’re just trying to be safe in what we’re doing. And a lot of the drills that they’re doing, they’re doing for the first time with us, and they’re going to do them tomorrow and they’re going to do them next week and they’re going to do them the first day of training camp. So it’s really an introduction to how we operate. It’s true that a lot of young men that go through this draft process, you’re not in the best shape, so we know that. So it’s not like we need to scare them into it. They realize that they have work to do and not all of them do. But sometimes you’re in the draft process and you’re on the airplane every other day making these visits. So we got a lot of resources in this building and these guys are going to use them.
I know it’s early and you haven’t had a lot of time with them, but just what’s your impression of the reaction of them to getting all the information that they’re going to have to absorb and know inside and out?
Yeah, I think that’s every year at rookie minicamp. You have a pretty good feel of these players. We have good intel on them before we get them, but we understand how they learn best and that’s where we as coaches need to do our best to teach these guys in whatever setting works for them. So even though we have a ton of meeting time, that meeting time may, ‘hey, let’s walk out in the indoor and walk through this’ or ‘hey, let’s take a breather here and let’s talk through this concept.’ So we really are going at their pace right now to make sure that we can ensure that they’re going to get this for the long term.
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