Offensive Coordinator Tommy Rees (9.18.25)
Tommy (Rees), how do you think Quinshon (Judkins) looked in his first game? Did he exceed expectations, match expectations? What’s next for him?
“Yeah, try not to set expectations going into it, right? We felt like he did the things during the week to get him a role there going into the game, and obviously as he gets back and going, hope to see where that role can take him and expand on it. But really not having a ton of work leading up to it, we were pleased with how he went out there and performed both mentally and physically. And as he gets back into the flow of feeling the runs and just being integrated back with the group, and the offensive line. We expect him to continue to develop and as a young player, that’s what you’re looking for, and that’s our expectation with him right now. So, pleased to have him back. Pleased the way he’s working. He brings a certain intensity to the group that I think is a real positive. So, happy with where he’s at.”
How about Joe Flacco’s game? Can you just talk about his game overall and the outlook for this week?
“Yeah, never really got into a rhythm. Never got into sync with the guys. Whether it was us not getting the right pre-snap look or just being off kilter, pressure – whatever it was, just never got into a rhythm. I think the quarterback position, it’s so important to get into the flow of the game, to be able to feel confident in what you’re doing while you’re back there. The week before, I felt like he did get into a rhythm early. You have that long drive, you have early success, which I think is important. So, as coaches, it’s, how do we get him into that? How do we make sure that we’re being clear during the week on different things? We’re trying to get to pre snap, because when he is in a rhythm, he’ll hit a bunch in a row, and we’ve seen that. So, it’s our job to put him in that position.”
With that just watching the game, it looked like the (Baltimore) Ravens covered the receivers tightly. What can be done to gain separation for those guys?
“Yeah, I think as a staff, we’ve got to do a good job of putting those guys in the right positions, giving them different looks and different structures offensively to make sure that we’re putting them in advantageous spots. We have talented guys that can go win. They’ve shown to do that. So, it’s our job to put them in those spots.”
Tommy, speaking of receivers, it looked like Ced (Cedric Tillman) got knocked down a couple times and fell down, and he got up looking for flags. Did you think there should have been penalties, or does he need to be more physical through that kind of thing?
“Yeah, it really doesn’t matter with the penalties. You can send in the report, and you almost feel worse when they tell you they should have thrown it, right? But no, we just want to home in on the fundamentals, right? Like, our job, what we can control, is making sure that fundamentally, especially early part of the season, so much of the messaging is the team that’s typically fundamentally better and takes care of the football is going to win the game. And so, for Ced, the focus is just get back to our fundamentals, put ourselves in good position, both through contact, without contact, to make sure that we’re staying up. And look, he performed at a high level the week before through some contact, made some great catches across the middle. There were some tight windows. The touchdown, certainly through contact. So, just got to home in fundamentally to make sure that we’re being efficient at the top of the route.”
Can you talk about protection that Joe’s getting? And then you look at Green Bay (Packers) and they just seem to bring pressure from everywhere. And not only do they bring pressure, they’re getting home.
“Yeah, they create pressure with the front. It’s an excellent front seven, excellent front four. Linebackers do a nice job in their blitz. I’ve coached against Haf (Jeff Hafley) in college when he was at BC (Boston College), and he’s done a great job since then, of really utilizing his guys, really utilizing ways to attack your protection plan. So, he does a great job putting those guys. Obviously, they get a big trade here right before the season, which helps create the pressure. So, protecting the quarterback is really a job of all 11. It’s the receivers being on time, it’s the quarterback taking the proper footwork. It’s the backs or tight ends in their protection work; it’s the line being able to sort through calls. So, we definitely have a challenge with this front. They do a great job, both in their plan and they have really, really good personnel up front and across the board. So, it’s going to take our entire group to protect the quarterback and it takes the quarterback also, to protect the quarterback. So, we look forward to the challenge and putting our players in a position to have that success.”
Jack (Conklin) only had the one drive against Cincinnati (Bengals). You guys obviously had a plan with Dawand (Jones) in Baltimore. Just the continuity, how difficult has it been to kind of get that established up front this early on?
“Yeah, we felt like we had it during training camp. I mean, that position group…it’s five guys, but it’s really one, right? I mean, they have to see things the same way, they have to work together in combination, both run and pass. So, I do think, as the year goes on, you start to get more comfortable with the guy that’s next to you. You start to be able to feel and play off one another. But again, we’ve had that group for the majority of training camp. Cornelius (Lucas) is a guy who’s taken a lot of reps for us throughout camp, whether it be on a day where maybe somebody was limited or just moving on both sides. So, confidence in that, but it will continue to build and grow within that group.”
Tommy, what has Micah Parsons added to, as you said, a really good front already, but what has he added and where are you seeing from them so far?
“He’s a great, great player. We go against one very similar every day in practice. You’ve just got to be hyper aware of where he is. You got to be hyper aware. They do a nice job of moving him around, not just kind of being stationary where you can home in on it. They did the same thing with him in Dallas, where they were able to move him around. He’s so versatile in his rush, he’s so versatile athletically in what he can do. He’s able to do those things, so you got to have awareness of where he is. Again, it takes all 11 of us to defeat a really good rush like that, but he’s definitely a matchup that, there’s guys across the league that you face, but he’s in that upper echelon for sure.”
Green Bay has had leads of 17-3 in both of their games. Do you think they’ve been tested in their run defense at all?
“It’s a good question. Yeah, I mean, I think they have a good front, and they have dissuaded people maybe from running the ball early because of that front. They’re a team that creates differences in how they build it, how they try to attack you up front. So obviously, when you get a lead of 14 points early, you’re discouraged from running the football, similar to how Baltimore ranked really high against the run, they’re usually playing with the lead, so sometimes those things can play hand in hand. But I definitely think it’s a combination of a really good front and then situational football dictates how those games are.”
Tommy, you mentioned last week you’re looking for consistency out of Dawand. How’d you think you it from week one to week two, and particularly in the run game, what do you see out of him?
“Yeah, I thought there was some growth. I thought there was some more, there was a comfort level in what we were doing. He had a couple really good reps on some downhill runs. There’s some things we want to clean up fundamentally. But it goes for all of our young players, the consistency, the growth. Dawand’s still a young player in this league, in terms of how many snaps he’s played. So, us pushing him fundamentally in the right direction to gain that consistency, to gain the trust in his footwork is something that we continue to harp on, like we do with all of our guys. We want to make sure that we celebrate where his successes are and where he’s improving, and to continue to stay focused on these couple things that we want to improve on.”
With Micah, are they moving him around a bunch and who’s really going to have to be worried about him?
“We all got to worry about him, like, he’s moving all over the field. They do a nice job inside, outside, different packages for him. So, like I said, I think all of us own the part of protecting the quarterback and being in a good protection plan and getting the ball out. So, he’s definitely one that we’re going to be hyper aware for.”
Tommy, Joe was talking yesterday about resisting the urge to press when the offense isn’t going the way you want it to. How do you recognize when quarterback is pressing?
“Yeah, playing outside of the structure. I think when we’re playing in rhythm, playing on time, playing with the defense has given us, following our reads, not trying to do something extra outside of the structure of offense. Typically, if a guy presses, it means he’s trying to make the play that’s not really there that we haven’t really designed it for. It’s easier said than done. You get frustrated within a game, it’s human nature to try to make a play and make something happen. For Joe, I think he understands that. I think he knows that, he’s played long enough. He understands the way we’re built and how we want to have success. So, it’s something we continue to reiterate and, you don’t want to stifle him to make throws and make good plays. But you want him to recognize, for any player, like, ‘hey, these are the looks that we want those big plays to occur. When we don’t get that, this is the answer.’”
With the defense that you guys have, I know you want to score on every drive. What can the value be of a punt?
“Yeah, I mean, there’s stats all over the place about when you end with a kick, right? Look, we want to be efficient on offense. We want to be able to score points. We want to be able to stay on the field. I felt like at times we did that in week one, where we were able to stay on the field. We were able to have efficiency, convert third downs. That plays into complementary football. So, look, we can’t give teams short fields, we can’t turn the ball over, we can’t do those things. So, I think that just comes naturally in our ability to play within the system and play efficient football.”
Tommy, Dylan Sampson was such an important part of the offense in week one. Week two, obviously you had Quinshon back, so kind of cut his workload, but it seemed like he wasn’t in on a lot of the passing downs. Why was that, and do you guys expect him to be more of a factor going into this week?
“Yeah, rotations can occur for different reasons. And, yeah, Dylan’s somebody we feel strongly about, and excited about where he’s at in his progression and continue to get him to be able to continue to produce for us.”
With Quinshon, the fact that he hasn’t been here that long, do you have to take into consideration blitz pickup and those kinds of things in addition to just running the ball?
“Yeah, there’s a lot more to playing the position, obviously, like you’re alluding to. So, look, Deuce (Staley) has done a great job getting Q caught up to speed. Q had the off season, before training camp to understand our system, understand our install, so we felt like he had a good starting point. Obviously, he’s played the position for a long time, so it’s definitely homing in on those points, homing in on those details to make sure that you have a player that you feel can execute the entirety of the offense.”
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