Offensive Coordinator Tommy Rees (9.25.25)
The tackle situation, I know I think I asked you something along this line last week. How much does the uncertainty at those spots, is it hampering what this overall offense can do?
“Yeah, I mean, they’re important positions, right? I mean, I think that’s represented when you look across the league and how those guys are paid and the value put on those spots. You know, we have a group of guys now that we’re developing, that we feel like can go out and execute for us. Obviously, you hate to see injuries happen, especially with, like we said last week, Dawand(Jones) is still a young player developing in this league, so, feel like we’re trying, we’re breaking through with him, and getting him to a point and then have an injury happen, you hate to see it. We have confidence in those other guys, we look forward to hopefully getting some guys healthy as the season progresses. But look, it’s a group effort up front. It’s a group effort up front, with the tight ends and the backs to help, and we talked about it last week in the passing game to mitigate a really good rush like Green Bay (Packers) had. It’s a hard thing to just put one position group for one spot, like, got to get open, got to play on time, got to get yourself in the right protection. So, we want to put a plan together to help all those guys, and we do have confidence in these tackles that we’re playing with.”
Tommy (Rees), along those lines, we see you chipping a lot with the running backs, the tight ends. The passing game has already struggled as it is, but how much does it take away from the passing game when you have one or two guys who are chipping or double teaming before they even go out to run a route?
“Yeah, you look across the league, guys have success throwing the ball and chip. You don’t want to use any of those crutches to say that we’re limiting ourselves there. There are great pass rushers in this league. We’re going to play against another one this week, and you look at our schedule, we play against a handful of the very best across the NFL. So, it’s a commonality in the NFL to see guys helping on the perimeter, just with how talented some of those guys are. So us as coaches have to do a better job of finding ways to get our guys open and be efficient in the passing game while also starting with protection.”
How do you assess how Joe (Flacco) has done and what more do you need to see from him?
“Just got to get him comfortable, like, probably felt comfortable early a couple weeks ago. Haven’t been able to get back into rhythm again. Our job as coach is to get him feeling comfortable and confident and, we’ve been working at that. He’s not a guy that gets real up and down, so you wouldn’t sense any of that, but just in the course of the game, allowing him to feel confident that he can rip it and really that’s our job as coaching staff to make sure that we get him there.”
He was talking yesterday about not forcing the ball and how important that is. So how do you find that balance? You talk about ripping the ball between having to check it down versus.
“You know, that’s what I mean by it’s our job as coaches. Like, there’s going to be premier looks where we say, ‘Hey, this is what we got it dialed up for, this is what we have it designed for.’ These are the times to take it, and then here are the times where, ‘Hey, we maybe didn’t design it for this coverage, here’s your outlet, or here’s the time to be smart’ or the pocket’s breaking down, it’s a late play decision. Like, those are built in. During the week, the understanding of, ‘Hey, this is exactly what we’re trying to attack when we get this, look, let’s attack it.’ And that’s why it falls on us as coaches to make sure we get that done.”
Do you feel there were a couple there last week?
“There’s always a couple there, you know what I mean? Like, every week you’re going to look back and say, shoot, we had this one, we had that. Joe is at a point in his career, you have great conversations about what he’s seeing, what he’s feeling. So, there’s always a why. It’s just continuing to get people to understand. And every week you play, I wish we would have had that one. And then, you know, I think about the extended play to Harold (Fannin Jr.) in week one. Like, shouldn’t have had that one, but found it. So, there is a give and take. But again, got to get him comfortable and do my job as a coach to make sure that during the week he’s getting to that point.”
Tommy, what about Quinshon (Judkins) and how he’s coming along, the 38-yard run this past week, the 31-yard run the week before. How’s he doing with the workload and everything?
“Yeah, seems to be doing okay. You know, really pleased with how he’s just put his head down and worked as he’s gotten back in the swing of things. Obviously, it feels like he’s been here a lot longer, but it’s a couple weeks, three weeks, maybe less. So to say, like where he is today and where he was when he first got here, where he’ll be in three weeks. I think optimistic about how he’s prepping and how he’s putting himself in a position to have success. You know, obviously he was able to find yards there, especially in the second half of the game last week when we needed it, and excited about where he’s at as a young player.”
Tommy, the (Detroit) Lions are the second highest scoring team in the league. 90 points in the last two games. Does a team like that influence your offensive game plan?
“Yeah, it’s a great question. They’ve been a fun offense to watch for years now. They have playmakers all over the field. They do a great job of getting the ball in those guys’ hands and allowing them to be really good players. You know, I think offensively you’re conscious of what’s going on, on the other side, but we know regardless of who we’re playing offensively, we still have to execute and do our job. We have a tremendous amount of trust in our defense, obviously, but really the focus still holds on us. You know, less about, ‘Hey, we got to keep up’ or ‘we got to be in a track meet.’ We just are more focused on doing our part, making sure that we can have success play in and play out, and you hope if you do those things, results will come.”
Do you see it starting to come or do you believe that it will come soon between Joe and Jerry (Jeudy)?
“Yeah, I do. I think we’re close there. Again, there’s a lot of parts of the offense that allow some of that to happen and putting Jerry in position to make sure that we’re giving him the best opportunities to get open, finish some things. And yeah, we’ve had some chances there that maybe were just a little bit off, we’ve had some chances maybe we’ve missed, we’ve had some looks that we like that maybe just haven’t connected. So, just continue to find ways to get him going and get the ball in his hands.”
Ideally, would you like to get him a touch or two early? I know you can’t force it, but to get him into the flow and rhythm.
“Yeah, I mean, within the structure, there’s always a plan there. I think good players, like Jerry is, you get him going early, usually reap the benefit. So, definitely want to find ways to continue to move him around and get him the best looks possible.”
What makes that Lions defense so good at taking the ball away?
“Yeah, well, they have a couple playmakers at all the levels, right? I mean the pass rush with Hutch (Aidan Hutchinson) kind of creates the issue in the pocket, (Brian) Branch is all over the field – he plays on the edge, plays a linebacker, plays a safety, punches it out, really good coverage player makes plays on the ball that way. You know, 31 (Kerby Joseph) had eight interceptions a year ago, he plays the middle of the field probably as well as anybody in the league. Ultra aggressive. And they have playmakers that are looking to get the ball out. They do a great job fundamentally, as a group of punching and ripping at the ball. If you watch (Alex) Anzalone run down, constantly going after the football. So, it’s clearly coached how they attack the ball. They play an aggressive style where they’re going to challenge you and swarm it – and be aggressive, and play lower and do things to try to make the quarterback feel uncomfortable. And then they always have 11 seem to be chasing the ball. And when you do that, when the ball comes out, usually you recover. So, definitely have our work cut out for us there.”
Tommy, yesterday I asked Flacco a general question about just the rookie’s contribution. He ended up singling out Harold Fannin. Since you were a tight ends coach here last year, what do you think of his progress? Is there anything unusual going on there or is he just off to a good start?
“He’s off to a good start. He was off to a good start when he first got here, right? You know, I think Harold’s got a really good way about him, approaches it the right way, comes to work, puts himself in a position to have success. You know, some guys have a knack of getting open and finding ways to do it, and hopefully we can continue having him put himself in position to do that for us. But it really starts with just, he’s a very humble kid that came in with his head down, and put himself in position to move around, and learn the offense and understand what we’re asking him to do. And him and Joe have had a nice connection here through the early part.”
Tommy, as you work to build that continuity on the offensive line, what role did Ethan (Pocic), Joel (Bitonio) and Wyatt (Teller) play in that? Especially not only their veteran status, but they’re them together as a unit for a while.
“Yeah, I mean, those three have played together a lot. I think the communication with them is pretty seamless. You know, Cornelius (Lucas) is a vet who’s played a lot of football, so that transitions easy. And then with (KT) Leveston, who’s a young kid, like, I think the confidence that Joel can give those guys, the confidence that Wyatt can give those guys by playing next to them, communicating. They know the offense in and out, so they’re able to kind of breed some confidence into those young players, just because they can communicate so much easier. And then as you build a continuity with that group, you hope it becomes seamless, right? Like, you look at lines that can play together, if they stay healthy, or if they’re together for a long time, usually that group of five can kind of feel each other in a way that passing off games, communicating different looks, that becomes very seamless for them.”
(Adin) Huntington appears to be such weapon. Is there a pathway to him being used beyond short yardage?
“Yeah, I think he’s playing for us on three phases right now, so we’ll take him where we can get him. You know, we got to fight Jacques (Cesaire) a little bit every day to get him over with us. But he’s done a great job. I think he learns it well, I think he has a good skill set, really an exciting young player for us. And hopefully there’s continued use, because everything we’ve asked of him, he’s done a nice job.”
A guy like KT Leveston, who, from what I saw, graded out pretty well in run blocking last week. I mean, I know you can’t necessarily platoon or alternate, I guess you could alternate your tackles. But can you find a way to take advantage of the fact that he is a really good run blocker, even if he doesn’t get to start?
“Yeah, I think if we use guys in kind of wide roles, there’s ways to put your best players on the field. So, I think, any position, we try to find what our guys can do best, and allow them to do that, and KT has done that for us so far. Again, we have this young group of players that are fun to work with, and he falls into that category, even though he’s only been here for a short time.”
Tommy, with Dylan Sampson, obviously, he was so involved week one when Quinshon wasn’t here. Not as involved the last two weeks. Is that more of a week-to-week thing, or do you need to see something out of him to get him on the field a little more?
“Yeah, week-to-week thing. You know, Dylan’s done everything we’ve asked. We trust him. We know what he can do for us. Again, that would fall under my lens of, ‘Let’s get our best guys in certain spots’. And we certainly feel like Dylan can do some stuff to help us.”
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