Head Coach Kevin Stefanski (8.20.25)
Denzel (Ward), is there any update on injury, nature, severity, that sort of thing?
“That’s a lot. No update. Doing well. Expect him to be out here, back out there pretty soon.”
It looked like Cedric (Tillman) didn’t practice today.
“He’s dealing with a thumb thing, but should be fine. Not long term.”
And how about Kenny Pickett? What is going on there?
“Continuing to progress. He’s doing everything in his power to get back out there ASAP.”
Is he doing an every other day kind of a thing or he just wasn’t ready to go?
“He’s fine. A lot of this is just getting some guys ready who are playing on Saturday. Kenny’s not playing Saturday, so just getting more walkthrough-type reps.”
What about Shedeur (Sanders)? It looked like he was doing more out there.
“Yeah, doing more. And then important part is just to find out how he comes out of today, how he felt and we’ll know more both after practice and then know more tomorrow morning.”
He’s a gametime decision?
“He’s a decision to be made later. I just don’t know yet.”
Kevin, Ryan Day said a couple weeks ago, maybe probably a month ago now he’s talking about 7-on-7. He was saying he sees some diminishing returns at the youth levels and he wonders if he wishes he could get more live bullet reps for his guys. And he was saying he wonders if that’s maybe why there’s some mystery around quarterbacks evaluation when they get here is on the grassroots levels. You know, maybe they’re not getting as many levels. What’s your take on 7-on-7 at the grassroots level or just like the 7-on-7 application?
“Yeah, I’m probably not equipped to answer 7-on-7 for kids. I’m just not around that the youth game as much to answer that. I would say from our perspective, we did a lot of 7-on-7 in the spring. Really because the rules ask you to do 7-on-7. It’s hard to do too much from a team perspective based on how the rules are written for us. Now we’ll do it here and it allows the offensive/defensive line to get some one-on-one work together. I could just tell you every coach, offense or defense would always prefer to do team versus 7-on-7.”
Kevin have you called all the plays the first two games?
“Yes.”
Will you do like you normally do and switch it up for the last one or not?
“Not this year. Just with the young QBs, want to make sure I’m giving them one voice.”
Kevin, your cornerback group, I mean, you’ve struggled to keep the whole group out there on the field. How much especially in a group like that, cohesion and, you know, communication is so critical. How big of a deal is that, you know, that you get Greg (Newsome II) back and then Denzel’s (Ward) out for a while and, you know, Martin (Emerson Jr.), you know, you’re just sort of shuffling.
“I would say, Chris (Easterling), certainly you’d love to have all your guys out there for every rep for the communication purpose of it. But it’s not a bad thing to get guys different reps and make guys talk and make guys communicate. I think Brandon Lynch does an excellent job with our corners, and they work a lot off to the side, in the meeting room and the walkthrough through room to get ready. And a lot of that has to do with communication, like you’re saying.”
I know we’ve asked you a lot about Duce (Staley) and leading that running back room, but this offseason or this training camp where there’s been some uncertainty there in that group, like how much of a stabilizing presence has he been for those guys?
“Duce (Staley) is a big piece of the puzzle for me as a head coach, for us as a football team. He provides great energy, great spirit, great juice out there on the practice field. Again, a former player that’s done it at the highest level, immediately has our respect, but just pours himself into this game, pours himself into his players.”
So Denzel (Ward), he’ll be fine for the opener?
“He’s day to day. He’s doing well. Should be.”
Greg (Newsome II), how did you see him respond? You know, obviously he’s back out there today. Just kind of respond to getting back into 11-on-11 for the first time.
“Yeah, doing a good job. Continues to feel better every single day, but doing a good job.”
Kevin, we talked to Jamari Thrash today and he mentioned that in the offseason the big thing was just getting more comfortable catching the ball, speed of the game, stuff like that. How have you seen him come back here in this camp?
“Yeah, really impressed by Jamari’s (Thrash) growth his sophomore year here. We’ve put a lot on his plate and he’s done a really nice job with everything that we’ve given him. He was one of those guys that did really well in the offseason program, really took to the teaching, took to what we got accomplished in the weight room in terms of working on his body. So I think he’s a product of a lot of hard work that he’s put into this thing.”
And what do you learn about a guy like that? Maybe didn’t play as much last year, but what do you kind of learn about him as he’s going through that year?
“Yeah, always a guy that is extremely dependable. And I know at that position that’s of the utmost importance when it comes to the quarterbacks. And a guy that you can trust and can get open, can catch the football, can line up at multiple spots. That’s a valuable thing for an offense and certainly the quarterbacks.”
Kevin looked like JOK (Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah) was out there, just for an emotional, if as much as anything, having him around for the guys. I know he’s not going to play, but just having him. What’s he mean in that locker room even when he can’t?
“Jeremiah (Owusu-Koramoah) is a huge part of this football team. He’s a huge part of who we are and what we strive to be. So always fun to have him out here. He’ll be out here hopefully a good bit, but he’ll be visiting us and doing some work with us. But, yeah, we love having Jeremiah out here.”
Kevin, so with Shedeur (Sanders), was he technically limited today or was he full-go today?
“No, still limited. Still had a number of throws that we wanted him to get and then evaluate him afterwards.”
What have you seen from Isaiah Bond these last few practices?
“Well, early, it’s two days in, but I think it’s getting up to speed physically, getting up to speed mentally. But he’s done a nice job knowing what to do. He’s in here early with the coaches so that he can get up to speed.”
Would you feel comfortable playing him on Saturday?
“Let’s see how he feels tomorrow, how we feel, but not ready to say just yet.”
Jamari (Thrash), guy who didn’t play a ton last year, comes out this year, has a great camp, now looks like he’s going to fit for you. The NFL is so like what have you done for me lately in terms of, like, players, coaches? You don’t always have a lot of time to let guys develop, but how much do you guys value patience, kind of giving guys time to grow and understanding not everybody’s going to get here and be immediate contributor.
“We have talked a lot about player development the last, it feels like, the last couple days. And it’s something that’s very important to me and to us and our organization and the pace of that development for some players is they get it right away and for some guys it takes a half a season, two seasons. I can think about different guys that we’ve had over the years that maybe weren’t ready to contribute in year one, but then year two they were just a different person, different player. So everybody’s at a different pace but we do everything in our power to accelerate that pace and it’s a two-way street. And Jamari is a great example of a guy who really took to coaching, took to what we’re giving him, didn’t get a ton of reps in the games last season, but was always very present, very intentional about learning what to do and then is ready and was ready to take off with that role this season.”
Kevin, some injury questions. Saw Mike Hall (Jr.) kind of working on the side, he had a brace on his knee. Is he not really in the picture for Week One at this point?
“Yeah, I’m not there yet Daniel (Oyefusi) in terms of who’s ready or not for Week One. He’s progressing and doing a good job.”
What about Winston Reid? Haven’t seen him in the past couple of days.
“Yeah, dealing with a back injury.”
Myles (Garrett) mentioned he’s had more of a leeway in terms of leadership and kind of voicing his opinions and stuff to the coaching staff. Was that more self-driven by him or more just with what happened during the offseason?
“No. I’ve been now with Myles (Garrett) for six years. He’s grown as a player. I hope I’ve grown as a coach. He’s somebody I trust. He’s seen a lot in his career. He’s been with a bunch of different teammates and learned from those teammates. So I think he’s just a player that’s continuing to evolve and certainly his leadership’s been a big part of who we are around here. So he’s somebody that I rely on, his teammates rely on and that’s something that he embraces.”
Was it just a rest day for Jack (Conklin) today?
“Yes.”
Do you have an idea of how long you’re going to play the starters on Saturday?
“I probably can answer that tomorrow for you guys but still wanted to see how we came out of this.”
Old training camp adage that the defense usually starts ahead of the offense. If you agree with that, why do you think offense takes longer to gel?
“Good question. I don’t know. It’s a great question. I do think it’s something that early on maybe defenses can play a little bit simpler and install one coverage and one front and run that versus all. Whereas the offense is maybe installing multiple plays. There’s a little bit of a tendency to be behind, but it’s definitely true.”
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