Offensive Coordinator Tommy Rees (12.4.25)

So how did Shedeur (Sanders) progress from his first start to his second start?

“Yeah, took care of the football there throughout the game, which is a positive – something that, with young players, you stress. I thought, operationally, was cleaner, as he gets more comfortable, more reps, more opportunities in and out of the huddle, communicating at the line of scrimmage. You know, felt like we had more time at the line of scrimmage to get some things called up front. So, I think ownership of the system, ownership of what we’re asking him to do, making good decisions, thought there was some progression there for sure.”

 

He talked after the game and again yesterday about building trust with his receivers. How long should that take?

“I don’t know if there’s a set timetable on that. Obviously, every rep you get, every opportunity you get to throw routes on air, see things in practice. For young players, every time you see something could be the first time. So, I think all those reps add up. I think there’s a natural progression here as they continue to work together – that trust will be built. And it’s really getting on the same page and seeing things the same way so that things can become second nature for them on the field.”

 

But then, does frustration build? As we saw Jerry Jeudy yelling at him on the sideline.

“Yeah, it’s a competitive game. You know, that’s behind us at this point. I don’t have any concern about their relationship, where they are, being on the same page. I think, look, everybody’s competitive, wants to play well and win games and do things the right way. So, that’s something they’ve had a conversation on. That’s completely behind us and moving forward.”

 

Do you know what the disagreement was about? Like, what play it was on?

“Yeah, I don’t want to get into all the specifics there, except for the fact that it’s a competitive environment, competitive game. Those guys have handled it, and we’re all moving together on the same page.”

 

Tommy (Rees), yesterday when Shedeur was talking, he said he thought he was seeing things well, but maybe not trusting enough to let it rip on some of the throws. Did you notice that?

“Yeah, there’s certainly some opportunities he probably wants back, and that’s going to happen with a young player. You’re seeing things, and things are moving quicker than you’re used to. And every rep he gets, every opportunity he gets, he’s going to get more and more comfortable. There’s always going to be plays you want back. I think we had some things there that you felt like you had some opportunities to hit, and those are coachable moments for a young quarterback. Those are opportunities to point out, like, ‘hey, this is what open looks like’, or ‘this is the defender that our eyes need to be on’, and trust that you’re going to make this throw. And in the same vein, he makes a lot of those plays too. So, it’s building comfort across the game plan, across the concepts, across the coverages he could see to make sure that we can maximize all the opportunities we have. But he’s done a nice job, throughout the week, of communicating and seeing things, and ‘hey, I need another rep of this because I want to see it again’. All those points are really positive and moving in the right direction.”

 

Do you believe in the game slowing down for a player, or is that just a byproduct of what you’re talking about, just seeing the game better?

“I think those work hand in hand. I do think it slows down as you see it, as you get more exposed to it. Five years from now, it’s going to certainly feel slower to him, five weeks from now, it’s going to certainly feel slower to him. So, I do believe in, like…there comes a moment where you can kind of just, ‘all right, take a breath. I’m seeing these things clearly. I’ve had plenty of reps on this. I can feel the defensive coverage, and things are starting to click’.”

 

Tommy, when you’re upstairs seeing this in real time, seeing Jeudy open three, four, five times a game and not getting the ball – how do you not get frustrated during the course of the game?

“Yeah, like, we’re all competitive, we all want to win, we all want to play well. But my focus is why, or how do we get this corrected? It’s not…we have a young quarterback playing who’s doing everything we’re asking of him, doing a good job of working towards the progression. So, I try to internalize it. Like, ‘where did I not make this clean enough for him to go execute?’ You know, there are plays throughout games where there’s a myriad of reasons why things don’t work out. It’s our job as coaches to present the solutions for the players so that they can, and that’s really where my focus is. I brought this example up last week, in his first real game time against Baltimore (Ravens), we called a play twice. The second time we hit Harold (Fannin Jr.) on that two-minute drive for the in-cut on the first play. We had called it earlier in the game, we had really the same look where we could have completed it. So, the conversation is like, ‘hey, what are we seeing? How do we get this corrected? This is what you should key and trust it’. And then the next time we did, he executed it. So that’s where our focus is as a staff, that’s where my focus is in the box, and trying to be as solution-oriented and solution-based as possible.”

 

Tommy, I know you guys drill into the quarterbacks, take care of the football, don’t be reckless and things like that. What’s the balance now, considering where you’re at in the season with, obviously wanting them to take care of the ball and protect it, but also at the same time testing their limits and what they can do in situations and the risk that does come with that?

“Yeah, it all predicates, what is the look that the defense is giving us, right? Are they giving us a look where we want to take that throw where we are designing this to expose this coverage, and get this play called and get this route thrown. If a defense predicates the look, let it rip. You know, if they do something different, they take it away, you got to find your next read or your next solution. I’ve told a lot of angry receivers, ‘look man, I don’t dictate where the ball goes, the defense does.’ Like, if they play this coverage, it’s going to end up here. It is what it is. It’s the same thing for the quarterbacks, like if they play the coverage we want and we call the right play and we get into the right look, I think the play to Harold is a great example – let’s let it rip, that’s the look we want. When it’s not there, let’s be smart and find a solution and we’ll call it again. You know, the other plays in between, it’s like, ‘hey, when we have the look and we have the play, that’s when it’s time to let it rip’. And that’s where we want to make sure we’re maximizing our opportunities.”

 

Tommy, with Deshaun (Watson) back at practice, what are your goals for him over the next few weeks?

“Make him comfortable, I think. Get him back in the swing of things, not put a ton of expectations on big picture, but ‘hey, let’s get back into the swing of doing drills, back into the swing of throwing full speed routes to our receivers, our tight ends, getting comfortable at the line of scrimmage.’ Get him back feeling comfortable in playing the position, and continue to work and improve where he’s at.”

 

Tommy, on the fourth down play-calls. Obviously, they didn’t go the way you wanted. Kevin (Stefanski) talked about how you go into those situations feeling confident and you like the play-call that you have. But what are those conversations like in those moments and how do you balance feel for the game, knowing where you’re at, not wanting to set your defense back versus “hey, the analytics say this” or “hey, we feel really good about the play-call?”

“Yeah, look, the decision on going for it or not, like, Kevin does a great job of communicating that ahead of time so you can have your sequencing of plays ready to go. I would say, like, I’ve been a part of staffs where you get an abrupt ‘hey, go for it’. Kevin does a wonderful job of, in the sequence of calls, ‘hey, if we get this thing to short yardage, we’re in a go area here’. Look, the first call, I think we were damn near 100% on that scheme throughout the season. You know, they had some movement, we can put our guys in a better position up front to handle the movement, and that’s our job as coaches. And they made a nice play there on the left side. The second one, the personnel coming in with the injuries, some of the things that we needed to manage there – got it set. That’s a play we’ve repped, shoot, since August, I think, with Harold, and we had confidence in him being able to execute that. And I think you see it across the league, you’ve certainly seen here in the past of the tight end sneak play with quarterbacks not sneaking as much, have a lot of success in the plays that come off of it. Certainly, we saw one a couple weeks ago against Baltimore. So, like that’s a play we had confidence in. I wish it would have been smoother and cleaner. But we’re not going to lose confidence in our players, we’re not going to lose confidence in the ability to be aggressive. There are some things, like, I internalize of, ‘hey, are there better options here in these situations? Are there some things that we can do differently?’ And certainly, as a staff, we’re motivated to make sure we get those situations right. We had been pretty good in fourth-and-one throughout the year and felt really confident in some of those schemes. But we’re always…as you get good at something, teams are going to do some things to take it away. So, our job is to make sure that we have complementary plays off of that.”

 

Were you upstairs screaming, call timeout? I mean, I know you’re upstairs at least not listening to…

“A lot of focus on me being upstairs here with these questions. But you’re welcome to come sit there.”

 

But because you’ve got a bird’s eye view?

“Yeah, look, I’m keeping an eye on the shot clock. Felt like we had enough time, so we certainly got set, we just didn’t execute it in the moment.”

 

It looked like you guys had some success running the ball, just in general. But on some of those short yardages, even before the fourth and one, I think it was second and two, third and one.

“Correct. We would love to just go get it there, right? We ran the wide zone on third and one, we had a tight zone or duo on third and two or second and two, and like we felt like we could get – we were trying to sequence like, ‘hey, let’s go steal it on this one’, knowing that we’re going to move forward and get the first. Sorry, I didn’t mean to cut off your question.”

 

I mean, that’s part of it, but did they change something that took away some of the early success?

“They played us differently in the second half, they played a different front certainly. We were still…like, if you look at those first couple drives in the second half, we were still about five yards a pop in the run game. You know, we had a couple of good ones to get a first down. We started, the drive we got stopped on, we started with the sprint out, got eight yards and then had two one-yard runs, which we had been running it so much more effectively up to that point, and that’s when we got stopped on fourth down. But when we were backed up, we ran two runs and got a first down and had some success there. So, it felt like we were still running the ball at a pretty good clip. Then once it became a two-score game, obviously the game flow becomes a little bit different. But we knew that we felt really good about our matchups and our run plan going into the game. It felt like in the first half there, there was really some time where we were in control of the momentum of the game because we were able to run the ball at such a good clip. You know, for us, we fell short in some situational football. We got into the high kind of strike zone area and unfortunately went backwards and the opportunity for three points there. We got to a fourth and one twice, didn’t execute. Like, we got to be really good in those critical moments to stay on the field and obviously score more points.”

 

What are the benefits of going week-to-week with your quarterback decision and naming the starter like that? “What are they, you said? Yeah, I just think it, one breathes confidence into the group and the player and allows you to put a game plan together that is tailored to that individual and one that you feel like gives them the most confidence and chance to have success.”

 

What do you think the benefits are to having Deshaun on the practice field for these young quarterbacks, now that he’s actually on the practice field?

“I mean, Deshaun’s been so great throughout the year in the meeting room with the young guys, with the vets. I can’t say enough good things about him, I really can’t. And then his ability to be out there and see things and communicate, talk to those young players. Them to also just like, observe and learn from a guy that’s played at a really, really high level in this league and has been through a lot of the battles that young quarterbacks face. Like, I think their ability to just see that in-person and, similar to what it was like when Joe (Flacco) was here and being able to observe and then also be able to lean on him on the field and in the meeting room.”

 

During the pre-draft process, you guys obviously did your due diligence on all these quarterbacks. What were conversations like with Cam (Ward) and what stood out about him as a player?

“Competitive, like ultra-competitive. Good free throw shooter. I think he knocked down nine straight out here. Really enjoyed our time with Cam, like, we’ll be a fan of his and rooting for him. His family was great, he has a good way about him, confident, ultra-competitive, like made up of the right stuff. And so, we’ll be rooting for Cam throughout his career. Just through my brief interactions with him leading up to the draft, I really liked the kid and really liked what he was about.”

 

If you guys get the chance and Deshaun is ready to run the scout team, how might that be good for your defense? Just in terms of maybe seeing a dual threat quarterback?

“Those are not up to me. So, we’ll see how things transpire, and our focus is to, let’s get Deshaun comfortable and better and feeling good, and then we’ll see where things go.”

 

 

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