Offensive Coordinator Tommy Rees (11.20.25)

So, Tommy (Rees), what do you feel like you can do to devise a game plan to help Shedeur (Sanders) feel really confident and comfortable this week?

“Yeah, without getting into specifics, obviously. With any quarterback, with any player really, you want them to feel as comfortable as possible. You know, for young players like Dillon (Gabriel) and Shedeur, that’s pulling from a lot of different avenues. That’s pulling from things that they’ve been comfortable with within your system, things you know that they like. So that’s our number one job, right? You want to make your quarterback comfortable; you want to call plays, you want to put in plays that breathe confidence into them as they hear them, as they call them, plays that they know they can make work. And then you press the guys around them to raise their level of play and play well, to continue to breathe confidence in the young players and in the young quarterbacks. So, that’s really been the motivation this week moving forward. Had a good first day of practice, had a good walk through this morning, so continue to build off of that.”

 

Tommy, what’s the realistic expectation for what a week of practice reps can do for Shedeur, in terms of from what he did last Sunday to this Sunday?

“Yeah, certainly don’t try to put any sort of expectation on guys, especially young players. You know, I think we’re about our process and about what drives that process. Certainly, you look at having a full week of prep, a full week of game planning, a full week of him being in the forefront of your mind as a coach. And he knows that as a player, you hope that all those things benefit and come to fruition on Sunday. Expectations – I would say we try to limit those. It’s more about, ‘hey, we’re going to pour this whole week into making sure that you feel comfortable and confident’, and our goal and our job is to make sure that he gets that feel and gets ready to go on Sunday.”

 

What did you think of his debut?

“Look, I think it’s a hard position to be thrown into, obviously, but that is the life of being a backup quarterback in this league. So, a lot of guys have faced that, a lot of guys have played that role. You know, really proud of the way he fought. We had a chance there going into the last drive and had a chance to, really up until the last couple plays, to go ahead and either win the game or tie the game up at the very least there down the stretch. You know, had a shot there on the second to last play, and obviously the last play didn’t go our way for a couple of different reasons. But really proud of the way he fought. He stayed resilient, he stayed in the moment, gave us a chance to win the game at the end of the game, and we’ll look forward to coming through on those opportunities down the stretch.”

 

We talked so much about trying to create explosives, and you mentioned the second to last play and the one before that, he took a shot. It feels like he has a skill set to throw the ball deep and likes to throw the ball deep. Is that something you notice and something you maybe lean into with him?

“Yeah, again, make him feel comfortable. What are the things that you feel like he excels at? You know, that drive starter, right? He threw a big in-cut to Harold (Fannin Jr.) that really got us into position. In two-minute, you’re always looking for a chunk at some point to kind of get the drive going and get you in position to have success down the stretch. So, we’re going to tailor it to what he’s comfortable with, tailor what he’s confident in. We have confidence in our guys down the field to make that play, we have confidence in Gage (Larvadain). When the ball was in the air, I truly believed Gage was going to make this play, especially the way that the turn happened and all that. We’ve seen Gage make those catches in practice a lot of times, and we have confidence in our guys to make those, and we have confidence in Shedeur to make those as well.”

 

Tommy, when you look back at the blitz looks that the (Baltimore) Ravens showed you guys in the second half, just what do you think, overall, you guys can do to combat that a little bit better?

“Yeah, it definitely felt like their plan shifted with the quarterback change and the amount of pressure that they brought. Look, there’s a lot of different things we can do schematically without getting into all the details, but certainly changing the launch point, we did a couple times, we max pro’d it a couple times. You know, we got to be technically better in some areas, we have to be in the right checks in some areas. So, that protection, there’s a lot of different issues that are caused, and it’s our job as coaches to keep defenses off balance with our protection plan, and then we got to execute some of those specific looks as well.”

 

Do you think a lot of those problems stem from the fact that your first down yardage is the worst in the league right now?

“It could, yeah. It certainly could, yeah.”

 

I mean, has that been a focal point now or what do you see the reason for that?

“In terms of just pressure in general?”

 

Why are you guys only averaging four yards on first down?

“Yeah, I think there’s probably a bunch of different reasons there. Some missed opportunities, certainly both run and the pass, and something that we’re focused on improving at.”

 

Tommy, going back to when Shedeur made that start in Carolina, it seemed like early on, he was drifting backwards. When pressure would come, he kind of tried to run backwards. It seemed like as the game progressed, he got more comfortable playing within the pocket. Do you feel like that’s something for him, that as he gets more reps, he’ll get more comfortable playing behind the guys in front of him?

“Yeah, I think that’s his first time playing, and there’s probably some movements there that you want to eliminate, and I think as you get into the flow of game, a lot of quarterbacks find their way as those first couple drives get going. And certainly, for him, like I referenced that first play, the two-minute drive, he stood in there, knew what he had, knew what he wanted, stayed in the heart of the pocket, delivered a good ball. You know, he moved a couple other times on that last drive to extend or slid a little bit to find Jerry (Jeudy) on the completion on the shallow. So, certainly in the flow of the game, you hope you kind of settle in and relax your feet a little bit – and the more you’re back there, the more you feel confident in where those protections are and where we are protecting them. But we got to do our part around him and make sure that he feels that as well.”

 

It looked like in the second half you guys did a little more hurry up. Is that true and why?

“Some of it was circumstantial, right? I mean, you’re in really almost two two-minute drives there, the last two drives, where you’re on the ball, you’re playing with a little bit more tempo. And then there was a plan of doing some of that in the game. You know, obviously the game script kind of changed on us a little bit when things changed, so we were trying to get comfortable and confident, and then move ahead. So, there were some of it based on being in two-minute, and some of it part of the plan going into it.”

 

How would you say that Dillon was coming along over his previous two games, and in a perfect world, and I Know, this is Kevin’s (Stefanski) decision with you and everything, but in a perfect world, would you still like to see more of Dillon going forward?

“Yeah, we want to continue to focus on the process of improvement, and certainly Dillon has areas that he wants to improve on, and areas that we want to continue to coach him on and improve him upon. I thought we did some good things there in the first half that we were trying to come out of the bye and build off of. You know, I think he was seven of ten when he came out. We hit a couple good balls to Ced (Tillman), had a missed opportunity there on the third down late in the first half. So, I thought Dillon was, trajectory wise, in that game, playing the right way and giving us a chance there to really have success offensively and doing some of the things that we’ve asked him. You know, we’re going to continue to stay with that process, continue to improve upon the things we need to improve on, and focus on getting all these guys better each and every day.”

 

You mentioned that throw to Harold to start out that last drive. I was watching somebody’s film breakdown of Shedeur. Did you guys run the same play earlier and noticed that was going to be open and then said, ‘hey, let’s go back to that’?

“We did run the same play earlier, yeah.”

 

And thought it could work out there?

“We liked the concept versus their coverages. We called it early. He checked it down to Dave (Njoku) for a solid gain. I think that was probably second and long, to an earlier point, and we felt like the coverage was giving us a chance there. And we have two guys there on that route that we trust, and we did a great job of standing in there and delivering.”

 

On the Gage pass – was the ball placement right where he needed to put it?

“Yeah, I mean, you throw those, they’re 50-50 go balls. I think he’s done a nice job through practice of having the ability to place those balls outside the red line. And look, it was a good play by the DB, give him a lot of credit for raking through it. But again, when that ball was in the air, I believed it was going to be caught. Both with Shedeur and Gage, and just felt like it was, the way Gage was turning and tracking the ball, felt like a good spot for both of them.”

 

Jamari (Thrash) was inactive for the first time this year. What went into that decision?

“Team decision and help in other places for the team.”

 

When you look at the Raiders defense, does it start with (Maxx) Crosby for you?

“Yeah, certainly.”

 

Especially with your tackle uncertainty again, how do you go into it preparing to stop him?

“Yeah, again, without too much schematics. He’s obviously a great player – extremely disruptive, both run and pass. Even when he’s not getting to the passer, he effects so many passes by getting his hands up, getting in passing lanes. I think he does a nice job of reading the quarterback and getting, when he’s not getting a great rush and finding ways to mirror and disrupt the ball. Relentless front side, backside of the run game. Like his motor is tremendous, and he’s one of those guys across the league that can really impact games and change games defensively. He had a strip sack against Dallas, he had an interception against Chicago – like he finds ways to impact the game. So, it’s all of our jobs, offensively, to make sure that we neutralize that the best we can. Understand he’s going to win some of his matchups but try to eliminate the one-on-ones as much as possible.”

 

Does he stay on the field more than any big-time edge?

“Yeah, his play time is about as high as any of those guys in the league. You look at that upper echelon group of rushers, his play time’s about the highest.”

 

Was that throw to (Isaiah) Bond a throw away or miscommunication? Like a play or two before in the end zone?

“It was not a throwaway. Like the scramble drill you’re talking about to the left? Yeah, probably a little bit of a miscommunication. You know, probably also, if you’re going to miss, missing it in a safe way on a broken play. We had a couple more downs there for a chance. So, as he extends it, probably a little bit of a not on the same page on the scramble drill, and a little bit of ‘hey, I’m going to put this in a place where we could get it, or it could fall safe’. Thought it was a good decision by him.”

 

Looks like Gabriel and Sanders couldn’t be more different. Besides one’s lefty, one’s righty, Gabriel seems to be robotic as a quarterback and follows everything to a script, and it seems like Shedeur wants to freewheel it and get excited and throw downfield more. You have to adjust your mentality in calling plays at all?

“It’s funny, like a coach a long time ago told me like, ‘hey, when you play the quarterback position, there’s an art in the science’, right? Like you can’t be full time artist, you can’t be full time scientist. The great ones kind of have that blend of, when is it time to play on script, and when is it time to play within the system, and then when is the time to let your instinct take over? I think with all quarterbacks, you try to find that right blend, right? I don’t think you can play this game completely by the book and I don’t think you can play this game completely like a cowboy, right? Got to have the blend of both – and that’s something we try to instill in our guys. And I would say Shedeur has some ability to play within the framework of the offense, just like Dillon has some ability to play free and create plays. And as young players, I think in this league you’re trying to find your footing on how to do that, right? And so, for both of them, that’s something that we discuss, and we talk about. And ‘hey, we have a premier look, let’s play within it’. ‘Hey, go bail us out and make us right and find a way to make a play’.”

 

Do you think they’re pretty opposite in their styles?

“I mean, I think they both have strengths and weaknesses. You try to heighten their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. You know, I think they both play the quarterback position, they both prepare the way that you want quarterbacks to prepare, you’re looking at maximizing their opportunities. I guess I don’t really look at it, in terms of comparing the two of them a whole lot.”

 

Is there something to be said for giving Shedeur an opportunity to throw to some of the guys? I mean, I know you guys threw that one to Gage, but you got Kaden (Davis) back, you’ve got Gage. He feels so comfortable with his ‘hungry dawg’ guys.

“Yeah, I would say there’s…certainly you have opportunities from July till now to throw with everybody. Again, that’s part of being the backup. But I would say a lot of those guys that are out there, he was drafted with, he’s repped with. Certainly, Ced and Jerry might be on a little bit on a different page, but I feel like we’ve done a nice job since July of really maximizing opportunities for all of our quarterbacks, right? We started with four and we found ways, found creative ways to get all of them opportunities. And is it perfect? No. It’s never going to be perfect. Certainly, this week will help tremendously at building some of the rapport and some of the timing between the quarterback and the receivers, and I know Shedeur feels really good and confident about that.”

 

 

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