Head Coach Kevin Stefanski (8.4.24)
Opening Statement:
“Good to be back here at CrossCountry Mortgage Campus. Excited obviously, to have all our fans out here. We’ve been working, but now they get to join in with us. So that’ll certainly bring some juice and some excitement to our players today. So, we’re excited about that. And then it’s Play Football today, which is a huge initiative league wide, certainly with us having some kids back here throughout this field, just with youth football, you know how important that is to our game, how important it is to me. So I’m pretty excited about having these kids out here, but with that, I’ll take any questions.”
Any update on Elijah (Moore) where he is?
“No update. He’s working through the protocol.”
Jerry Jeudy said he’s going to be available for seven-on-seven, for 11-on-11. Do you expect him to be full go today?
“If he said so I expect him to, yes.”
How about (D’Onta) Foreman? Any update on him?
“Doing better, but no update just yet.”
Is he in protocol?
“He is not in protocol.”
When you say that Elijah is working through the protocol, so he is in the concussion protocol, is that correct? Does he have a concussion?
“I’m not going to go into all the details of it, but as you know, when you get in that protocol, there’s certain things you have to pass to get out of it.”
Kevin, when you get to finally see Amari (Cooper), Jerry Jeudy, (Deshaun) Watson together on the field, what do you expect to see?
“Yeah, I mean, we’re still, it’s all still part of the process for us. Walk-throughs to the individual drills, to seven-on-seven to team. We try and just kind of stack these days and these opportunities to work. Obviously getting Jerry back is great for us and great for the quarterbacks to rhythm up with Jerry and that type of thing. But for us, this is all part of the process to get ready for the season.”
Are any guys on the injury list, like going to the next step of doing individual work today?
“You have to ask me who in particular.”
(Nyheim) Hines?
“No.”
Safety (D’Anthony) Bell?
“Not yet.”
Kevin, have you made a decision yet on Deshaun and the exhibition season?
“We’re working through that, Tom (Withers). I’ve talked to the coaches about it. We’ll have an update this week, but really want to sit down with the coaches and talk through it.”
What’s the plan with him this week? Will he be throwing every day?
“He will.”
Kevin, question from Denver media. What led you to want to trade for Jerry Jeudy? Just overall, how has he looked for you guys so far?
“Jerry’s been a really fun addition to this group. I think he does an outstanding job in the meeting room, on the practice field, has a great attitude, works very hard. Obviously excited to get him back out there and full speed and working with his teammates, but he fits in with us, how we operate, so we’re excited to have him.”
How do you see this team, these guys respond when they’re out here in front of fans when they’re open to them?
“They like it. They like positive reinforcement. You know, our fans are amazing, as you know, they’re extremely supportive. They love their Brownies. So for us to be able to share a little bit of that with us with them is a huge deal. And I mean, you can hear the kids over there, how excited they get. I mean, I went to training camp when I was a kid. I know how special that is. So we know that we got an important job in this town and we’re excited to share it with them.”
We’ve asked you a lot about how much work Watson might need in preseason. What about (Jameis) Winston being completely new to the team and being totally healthy?
“That’s a good question, Tony (Grossi). I think for each player, I really think it’s specific to that player to get them ready for the season. So, we really look at it that way as coaches. We sit down and say, ‘What does this guy need?’ And sometimes it’s a lot, sometimes it’s nothing. And that’s really just based on who the player is, years in the system, years playing those type of things.”
So, in his case, what does he need?
“Yeah, good question. I have to talk to the coaches about it. Like you mentioned, he’s played a lot of football. New in this system, so we’ll determine that over the next couple days.
When we talked to Za’Darius (Smith), he had some pretty high praise for Mike Hall. He said he sees a little Aaron Donald in him. Just what have you seen from Hall here early in camp?
“Mike’s done a nice job. Going back, we talked about Mike early in camp. He really takes this seriously. He wants to be great; he wants to work at it. I think he’s really lucky to be in a meeting room and on this practice field with some vets that have worked really, really hard to get where they are and Mike can see that from those guys and can kind of work appropriately, if you will.”
(Jerry) Jeudy coming back into seven-on-sevens and 11-on-11s, coinciding with now Elijah (Moore) being in the concussion protocol. Obviously, you want to see everybody out there together one of these days soon, but how might some of the younger guys benefit from both of them not being there at the same time?
“You know, that’s kind of camp, Mary Kay (Cabot). Obviously, sometimes you have guys available, sometimes not. And as young players, and we’ve talked a lot about this with our young players, you have to stay ready. You can’t all of a sudden try to get ready when a player goes out for one player, two players, or those type of things. So, our young players spend a lot of time with their coaches, extra time with their coaches to make sure that they’re ready for opportunities.”
Every day you’ve added something new to the script at practice. What’s new today?
“Berea. CrossCountry Mortgage Campus is new.”
Will we see something that we haven’t seen at the Greenbrier?
“There’s a few things that we’re doing differently from drill wise, if you will. We’ll work some route combinations. We haven’t done this just yet, Tony (Grossi), where instead of just doing one-on-ones, we’ll have maybe three receivers versus a nickel, a corner and a safety. So, we’re introducing some different drills to the guys.”
Will we have some two-minute today?
“I don’t believe we have two-minute today, but we’ll have it this week”
Will Myles (Garrett) or JOK (Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah) be on the field practicing today?
“Myles will be practicing.”
With the week at The Greenbrier and training camp this week and a game on Saturday, do you ramp up this part of training camp? Obviously not to a game week, but kind of mimicking that, in a sense?
“We do look at really this whole off, excuse me, this whole training camp as a ramp. And when I say ramp, it’s a runway to the season. So, there are certain things that you do early in camp and that you taper off. There’s other things, drills wise or maybe meetings that you introduce to the players as you get to this point. But we’re still very much in training camp. This is very much the dog days of training camp, especially as the heat comes on, which is good for us. So, we’re really focused on the work that goes into this thing, but it’s all part of the process.”
Kevin, what’d you learn being around Z (Za’Darius Smith) last year?
“Z is a great teammate. Awesome around the building, incredible energy, juice, practices hard. Really fits in with us culturally. We like everything about him.”
Kevin, Z had high praise for Alex (Wright). What did you see from him year one to year two and just your expectations for him?
“Alex played well for us going back to last season. He was a young person when we got him. I see him maturing in his body and his mentality and those type of things getting better. Like we mentioned with Mike earlier, it’s a really good room to look around at guys that are playing into year 10 of their career and you wonder how they do that, and the answer is just how they prepare how they work and those type of things. So, Alex is in a really good spot.”
I know it’s early in camp, but is there any clarity on the tackle position and who’s kind of in the lead right now?
“I wouldn’t say at this point in camp there’s really clarity or there shouldn’t be much clarity really, across the board. You want to continue to work for different roles and different opportunities. So obviously you work through the injury piece of that, and guys are in and out of the lineup and that’s okay. We understand that, but we’re really not setting a depth chart per se this early in camp.”
What about James Hudson? I know you guys have seen him over the last few years. How has he worked with these extra reps and the role in practices he’s gotten so far?
“That’s a good question. He’s certainly using those reps to his advantage. James, is a guy that has played on the right side, played on the left side, we’ve won with him, so he understands what it takes, but I think he’s still a young player that’s getting better. As you remember, James was a late move to offensive line in college, so there’s still things I think he’s ironing out even into this. – what is it, year four of his career?”
Kevin, will Myles do some seven-on-sevens and 11-on-11s today?
“We’ll ramp him up appropriately, but he’ll be out there.”
How impactful is it to have Dustin Hopkins sign that extension and be with his team for years to come?
“Yeah, we really feel strongly about Dustin. Obviously was outstanding last season for us, came up big in big moments for us. He’s a veteran, does a really nice job throughout the building. So, a guy that was important for Andrew (Berry) to lock up, and we’re excited to have him.”
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