Offensive Coordinator Tommy Rees (9.11.25)
Hey Tommy (Rees), what’d you think about Joe (Flacco) last week against Cincinnati (Bengals)? And do you think just overall, offensively you need to find a way to make more explosive plays?
“Yeah, I mean, I think we’re always striving to be explosive. You know, they played a lot of two high last week, which definitely challenges that. Explosives come in a lot of different ways, right? Like down the field, throws, run after the catch, run explosives. Yeah, that helps when you have a 20-play drive, a 15-play drive. Those are hard to sustain throughout the course of a season. So, finding ways to do that is definitely part of an offense’s identity. For the first part of your question, I thought Joe played a good game for us. Delivered the ball accurately, delivered the ball to a lot of different players, found outlets and check downs when needed. So, we just got to continue to build the rhythm and the timing with the rest of the group. That counts for Joe as well, you know, to make sure that we continue to build the rapport, to sync up some of those plays that are really close to hitting, that just found a way to not last Sunday. So, continue to get back to work. We’ve had a good first day of practice and you know, get ready for Baltimore.”
Tommy, you guys write the game plan on Tuesday, and yesterday was the first day of work. So, how difficult is it to incorporate a player who comes available, like (Quinshon) Judkins?
“Yeah, I think we are around these guys a good chunk. So, you have opportunities to find ways to get install. Obviously for Q (Quinshon Judkins), you know, we’ll take it day-by-day to see how he continues to progress in practice. You know, it takes some extra work to make sure that we can catch him up after a Wednesday practice. But Thursdays and Fridays are really pivotal days throughout the week. So, finding ways to make sure that we get him the proper work to give him an opportunity moving forward.”
You have him here Monday and Tuesday. Just how much do you retain from the playbook and everything from the summer?
“Yeah, I think definitely there’s a good starting ground for him. You know, when you get into the stream of a season, the one positive is you’re not trying to digest seven or eight installs like you would in training camp. You have a finite number of plays within a game plan, there will be carryover in terms of the terminology that, you know. So, for him it’s really focused on, all right, we have a new playbook for this week’s opponent, let’s try to master that instead of saying, all right, well, here’s our seven installs at training camp. That’s a little bit more daunting than one game plan.”
Do you believe that you can get him ready to play at least a half this weekend?
“Yeah, we got to see how he progresses, right? I mean, there’s the physical part of it, there’s the players health part of it, there’s the mental part of it. I mean, there’s so many different aspects when you’re looking to prepare a guy. We have a lot of trust in all the different facets of our organization that will help get them there. And we’ll just monitor as it goes this week, and hopefully it reaps good benefits. But we’ll take it one day at a time and see where it goes.”
When you look at the film from that first game, what can be done to improve the running game?
“Yeah, missed opportunities in the run game for sure. We need to be able to take advantage of, if teams play us, a certain style, to take advantage of looks that are advantageous. We need all 11 in the run game, the quarterbacks making sure we’re in the right IDs, the backs making sure we’re on the right tracks, the line working the right combinations. It is such a nuanced part of offensive football, that we just got to continue to coach our tails off on the details of it to make sure that our guys are understanding where we’re going. But, definitely frustrating to have some misses there and need that balance to make sure that we can sustain drives and sustain series.”
Tommy, with the way you guys used Harold (Fannin Jr.) a on Sunday, do you feel like you’re just scratching the surface with all the different ways you can deploy him?
“Yeah, Harold’s done a nice job of – as we’ve talked about him before – coming in and owning the different things we’ve asked of him. That position, like I think I said last time, you get asked to do a lot in that role. His skill set allows you to ask even more of him in that role. So, excited about how he performed in his first NFL game. I think you felt that through practice, but you’re never really quite sure until you get out there and continue to push him, and continue to find ways to get him to be a really impactful player for us.”
Can you put a number as to how many different places he could line up?
“There’s only 11 spots, so probably less than 11, I guess.”
Tommy, you talked about Dylan (Sampson) specifically, not knowing until he gets out there on Sunday that catching the ball wasn’t something necessarily he did a lot of coming out of Tennessee. How has he grown and was Sunday maybe just the tip of the iceberg?
“Yeah, I’ll give a lot of credit to our coaches on that one. That was definitely part of the developmental part with Samp when he got here, trying to work those things, find ways. You know, we want our best players on the field and usually at running back, there’s one of those guys, a little bit like quarterback. But if we can find different roles and different ways for him to impact the game, that’s impactful. Like the run game we just discussed, I don’t know how many like wide or swing routes we threw to Samp that are turned up into nine, 10, 11-yard gains that became kind of pseudo runs. Just different ways to get them involved when things aren’t clicking as much as you’d want them to.
So again, frustrating on the run game part, I got to get that fixed. But to make sure that you still don’t lose sight of some of those players and different ways that they can impact games.”
On Harold, in the tight end position, there are so many moving parts and things to learn. How impressive it is for him to be at that position this involved this early?
“I mean, you saw it on his college tape, right? Obviously, a different speed, I got all that. But the capacity to do all those things, to perform in those positions. You know, Scot Loeffler did a great job with him in college of moving him around. So, you saw a diverse ability to impact a game and then it’s ‘all right, we’ll get him caught up to speed and then as he continues to digest things, how can we continue to add stuff on his plate?’ And you know, he has done a nice job of putting himself in position to be ready. CJ’s (Christian Jones) done a great job getting him ready as his coach and excited about his prospects. Just got to continue to home in on the details and make sure that each week we give him a plan that he can go operate.”
We saw Adin (Huntington) on those jumbo packages. What about his ability did you guys like to put him in that situation?
“Yeah, well, you watched him on kickoff a few times and you felt like, the explosive power there and kid that can learn it and do a good job for us. So, Adin’s been great. You know, we used Winston (Reid) in a similar role a year ago. So, just finding guys that have unique talents that can help the entire team win games.”
I know Kevin’s (Stefanski) the play caller, but you guys are on the same page. So, what is your philosophy, has your philosophy changed on two point plays as opposed to PAT’s? Some coaches are going…the analytics say to go for more two points. What would you say is the philosophy of this offense when it comes to two point tries?
“Yeah, I’ll defer that to Coach Stefanski. You know, he’s ultimately the one who’s going to lead us, and we have all the faith that whatever is called, we’re going to go operate it.”
Would you say you have a large two-point playbook?
“You know, I think you have in every game plan, you have plays that you target as, ‘hey, these are specific to that or low red calls’ and you always have backups ready to go. So, one practice this camp, I think we repped six in a practice, and I remember sitting there being like ‘that seems like a lot of two-point plays’, but throughout the course of a year you’re going to need some. So, I do feel like we have a good plan there.”
What about Jerry (Jeudy) and Ced (Tillman), sort of their ability to bounce back this week and focus after some plays they’d like to have back in the last week?
“Yeah, it’s just got to sync those plays up, right? You know, in football so often you want to throw it a little better, you want to catch it a little better, you want to landmark a little better. The rhythm’s thrown off a little bit by having a step up. You know, there’s so many factors to that. Jerry and Ced are confident guys that have made plays in this league a lot of times. So, I don’t worry about their confidence at all. I think Joe (Flacco) does a great job of building confidence amongst his teammates and the receivers. And I don’t worry about Joe’s confidence at all, if he wanted to throw a little bit higher. Those are just reps that you got to sync up. You watch football across the league, you see balls bounce the other way and end up in a different result. So, for us it’s all about the fundamental, the detail of operating those things. But we have a ton of confidence in all three of those guys to make sure that we make those plays.”
What are some things that you can take away from success of the passing game on Sunday when facing the Ravens’ defense?
“Yeah, you just want to build off the success you have. You know, felt like we did some good things, attacking certain parts of the field. Feel like we created some explosives and some third down situations, which was positive. Felt like we put our guys in the right spots for what their abilities are. Baltimore presents a whole different level of challenges, just not because they’re any different, but just how they approach the game is a different scheme, a different aggressiveness on defense. So, we got to do a great job of understanding their coverage techniques. They have really good players in the secondary at all spots, inside, deep part of the field, outside. They have a good rush plan, which impacts the passing game more than people probably realize. So, we got to own those opportunities, own those situations. And again, we have a lot of belief in those guys to put them in the right spots to make the plays.”
So, the guy with 4.39 speed, (Isaiah) Bond. I know it’s only been two games, but when are we going to see that speed put to use?”
“We’ll find out I guess.”
What were your takeaways from Dawand (Jones) and what do the Ravens do from a pass rusher perspective that is different than Cincinnati and will present challenges?
“Yeah. Again, we want all of our guys at all spots to be consistent, right? So, I think as a young player that Dawand still is, finding the consistency is really critical. You have great downs, you have some downs that you want back, obviously want to eradicate some of the penalties, but that goes for everybody on our team. We got to find consistency. The early part of the season, so often the team that’s fundamentally better will play better. I know it’s very elementary to think about, but this part of the year, there’s a lot of sloppy football. So, we just want to be fundamentally sound and focus in on those techniques. And then again, Baltimore does a great job of not only challenging physically in their rush plan and what they do, but mentally, they throw a lot at you. And so being able to process at a quick level for our guys up front, for our quarterbacks, for the routes to understand how they need to time up, that’s critical to the success against these guys.”
You just said there’s a lot of sloppy football. Do you think that’s because the veterans played so little, if any, in the preseason?
“There’s probably a lot of factors to it. You know, I don’t know if I’m the right one to make that call.”
These next two days, today and tomorrow, what does Quinshon have to show to make you and Kevin comfortable to play him on Sunday?
“Yeah, I don’t think there’s one thing. I mean, I don’t think there’s like, hey, he has to do this or else it’s. I think we want to get a good feel for where he’s at from a mental and physical standpoint, and make sure we’re putting the kid in a position to have success. And it’s our judgment to make here over the next couple days to see how it continues to go.”
Going back to Harold and Dylan Sampson and even like Jerry Jeudy, his ability to line up in a bunch of different receiver spots. How fun is that for you as an offensive coordinator to kind of cook up how you use those guys?
“I’ll give a lot of credit to those guys. We’ve challenged them from the day we stepped foot together in the spring of like, ‘hey, these are some of the things that we want to be able to do.’ They’re not easy on you guys. They can challenge you again mentally, they can challenge you physically when you have to run extra on a motion or something. But we did want to challenge those guys on some of those things to help the overall team, and they’ve owned it, they’ve bought in and players with versatility that can learn it and be smart and go operate, that is a lot of fun to coach. But a lot of the credit goes to those guys for how they prepare there.”
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