Offensive Coordinator Travis Switzer (11.5.26)
So, what did you see from Shedeur (Sanders) in his first day out there yesterday, back working with the ones?
“I thought he had a good day, really. His urgency and his ability to command and operate was good. We were getting in and out of the huddle pretty well, which is some of the things we emphasized. So, yeah, I think just overall he let it rip. He made some good throws and checked it down when he should. I mean, overall, I thought it was a pretty good day for him.”
Obviously, when you’re in season, the first team reps are all going to the starter, so he hasn’t had that opportunity until this week to take some of those. But how have you continued to see him progress behind the scenes with the limited stuff he does get at practice after the competition and everything that went on in training camp?
“I think he’s done a nice job of staying engaged. I think that our quarterback coaches in that room have done a great job, Mike (Bajakian) and Matt Baker, of trying to continue to challenge him and keep him involved. And he’s asked questions in meetings. Whenever you can sneak, even if it’s just a walkthrough rep with him, they’ve done that. Like, say we have to repeat a play, sometimes they’ll just shuffle him in, and that way at least he gets the operation piece of it in a walkthrough as much as possible. But yeah, he’s doing a nice job staying engaged and trying to go about it like he’s playing.”
I know we asked you this before about his mobility and things like that. But why are you going to be able to keep in some of those RPOs and different, maybe, designed runs and other things like that that you would have in there for Deshaun (Watson)? Why can you possibly do that with Shedeur?
“Yeah, I mean, he’s still athletic enough, especially, as much of the decision, how much we do those things, can be who we’re playing as well, personnel wise and the structure of the defense. So, if we feel like that fits, then he’s certainly athletic enough to do some of those things if we were to need him to do that.”
Travis, what has to happen for the run game to be more consistent?
“I think when you talk about just the last game, I think it’s a bigger picture thing there. When you talk about a formula for winning, we fell short in a lot of those areas. We turned the ball over. We weren’t good enough on conversion downs, which some of that was because we had lost yardage plays and penalties on early downs. We didn’t score touchdowns in the red zone, and then we fell behind and it kind of became a drop back game, which is, it doesn’t matter who’s playing in the NFL, I mean, that’s a hard thing to sustain and a hard thing to do. So, biggest thing would just be being more consistent overall, getting into a rhythm, and then you have your whole playbook at your disposal, which is what every offense wants, in every situation, which would allow us to be able to run the ball more and be more consistent, more efficient overall. I would say that the biggest disappointment from last week was we fell short, in the short yardage and low red zone area. We had some mistakes there and obviously need to look at what we’re doing schematically and, hey, is this the best thing for us to do down there? I would say that’s probably the biggest thing from last week that we took away was the situational stuff, the short yardage area and the black zone. Those are critical moments, and we got to be at our best there, both coaching and playing.”
But I’m not talking about just last week. I mean, there’s been some inconsistencies, except maybe that Tennessee game, all season. Would you not got agree with that?
“No, yeah, of course. It’s always growing, and we’re always trying to improve it there. And like I said, it’s all parties involved. It’s coaching, it’s scheming, and it’s communicating, or, I’m sorry, executing consistently from a playing standpoint, too. So, all those areas we’re looking at, and we need to improve.”
Travis, going against the Saints and (Brandon) Staley’s defense, just how much of a challenge is that? Is it a lot of what you see with (Vic) Fangio and his defense?
“Yeah, I would say that there’s certainly some similarities there, and then there’s also just around the league, we’ve talked about this before, the pressure rates have spiked up. They’re going to challenge us with their linebackers internally both run game and pass protection. That’s something they’ve done a nice job of. So, I would say, yeah, like, the nuts and bolts of it are probably where he comes from, which would certainly be Fangio. But there are certain things that are kind of trending around the league with most teams that you’re seeing from them as well. But they do a good job. They got good players. I think 99’s (Chase Young) playing as well as he ever has in his career. Like I said, their interior backers are going to challenge you both run and pass, and yeah, it’ll be a good challenge for us.”
Spencer (Fano) was pretty frustrated with himself after the Steelers game. He felt he didn’t play up to his standard. Any rookie, especially at that position, I’m sure goes through ups and downs throughout a season without a question. But what are the conversations like with him? How do you help him flush that and move on to the next one knowing he’s got another great pass rusher that he’s going against this week?
“Yeah, that’s a great question. It’s certainly a challenging spot, like you said, for any rookie. And I think if you asked him, he would say that he didn’t play up to the standard that he has for himself, which is high, and it should be, because he’s capable of that. As far as going to improve., I think you just look at all the things, trusting your technique, and he watches some of those plays, and he’d probably tell you guys that, like, ‘Hey, I just got to trust my technique here and do what I have done and I’ve shown I can do consistently.”’
Along those lines, Denzel Boston was talking about some of the stuff he’s had to learn. He actually pointed to that one-handed catch where he couldn’t get his foot down. He thought maybe he could have. How have you sort of seen him adjust to defenses maybe shifting towards him a little and changing the way they’re playing him?
“I don’t know that it’s been a huge shift. That’s a world that any wideout probably wants to be in, because it means you’ve been productive when coverage starts to account for you maybe differently than it would somebody else. But I just think he’s going to continue to learn, and the more coverage looks that he gets as he goes on, he’s going to continue to learn what teams may be trying to do and why they’re doing that. And then also, how do we counter that? Some of its schematics and others is just what are they doing to him personally, coverage wise? Like I said, not necessarily schematics, but technique wise, and how can he best counter those? And the more that he’s around and playing for us, the more that he’s going to get better at all those things.”
What are some of the things that you’re really excited to see in Shedeur?
“I’m just excited to see him go play and hopefully let it rip, which I think he’ll do. He did it yesterday in practice. Go lead, be in command, which I think he’s grown tremendously in that area, really since we got here. And I think Monk (Todd Monken) mentioned this the other day, but when you’re going through training camp, and we were splitting, and really all the spring, we were splitting a lot of those reps as we were going through all the installs, and we were able to see him in a lot more reps than probably a typical backup would be, because obviously we were finding out who our quarterback was going to be. So, hopefully he can review back to some of those things if it were to be him, and yeah, let it rip. Play with confidence.”
When you look at the protection overall versus the Steelers, I know the situations played a role in it, but what did you think stood out the most as where you guys needed to get better?
“I don’t know that it was one area. I know we’ve kind of said this before, and it’s often the case, it’s not one thing. Hey, we didn’t have… I’ll say this, when you go back to the Jets, where we had some protection issues there too. We didn’t have all the communication things. There was one or two. But it wasn’t as many of the communication problems that we had, it was, ‘hey, we got beat a couple times, we need to trust our technique a little more up front. The backs got beat once or twice. We got to get the ball out a little quicker.’ And then also, like you already alluded to, the more situations, the more of those that you have, the more that those errors can show up. So, I mean, I hate to say it’s always never one thing, but it really is the truth.”
The challenge that the offensive line faces in a loud indoor stadium, especially when you lead the league with pre-snap penalties as it is. How is that complicated by the fact that you’re breaking in a new quarterback for this week?
“I think all those things are going to be at a premium this week. The communication, the getting in and out of the huddle. The more anxiety that we can relieve pre-snap, which usually comes down to the play clock, just having as much time as possible before the play clock to allow us to operate and relieve that anxiety, I think that’s going to be huge. As far as the snap count goes, when we’re in the gun we’ll be in silent, and we’ve been in silent every road game this year. So that part I don’t think is really a whole lot different, but certainly just trying to put a premium, like we always do, but especially, this week with them being indoors and it being a loud place, we talk about the four twos. Our pre-snap, in and out of the huddle. Shortening calls as a staff as much as we possibly can. Monk will talk about getting the play in as fast as possible, which he always tries to do. All those things are certainly at a premium when you play at a place like that.”
Will you have Elgton (Jenkins) maybe slide into protections or doing any of that to just to maybe take a few things off of Shedeur’s plate this game?
“No, we’re operating as normal.”
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