Offensive Line Coach Mike Bloomgren (9.19.25)
For most of training camp, you had everybody around, but the first two weeks you haven’t had Jack (Conklin) except for that first possession. Dawand (Jones) was sort of in and out there against Baltimore (Ravens). Just how difficult is it once you get in the game to get that cohesiveness, that cohesion that you’ve needed to help the overall process?
“Yeah, maybe I feel this way because I’ve worked with the position so long, but I think continuity of that position, in particular that position group, where you need five guys to see the game through one set of eyes, continuity is ideal. It’s what we all want. I certainly feel like myself, Ben (Wilkerson) and Sanders (Davis) are better coaches when we have our starters in there, like everybody in this world. But we also know the reality of the National Football League. It’s going to be next man up, and ideal situations don’t always play out. So, to answer your question, it’s not ideal, but we also train people who are professional football players, that should be able to step in there and get it right. From a communication standpoint, I think when you talk about what Ethan Pocic does, by giving us clear points and clear understanding to make sure we are seeing the game through one set of eyes, and that’s his. And the communication between Joel (Bitonio) and the tackle and Wyatt (Teller) and the tackle, those things, like, whoever’s in there, those three vets are doing such a good job getting us on the same page.”
How would you assess the run game through the first two weeks?
“Yeah, I don’t think it’s where we want it to be. I won’t lie to you there. And I think we had too many times in the first game where we weren’t hatted the way we wanted to be. I think you looked at what happened in the second game, aside from the first series, I think we did a pretty good job getting hats on hats and moving some people. So, I’m pleased with the progress from week one to two. That’s really what you want to see from your group in all areas is the big growth from week one to week two. But there’s certainly more steps I believe we can take.”
Mike (Bloomgren), with the (Green Bay) Packers and with them adding (Micah) Parsons to that defensive front, like, what have you seen from him on film and how much are they moving him around?
“Yeah, I think typical Micah Parsons stuff, like, you look at the breakdown in one game, game one versus game two, and one game he’s primarily on the left, the next game he’s primarily on the right, and he’s also going to be at the three technique, he’s going to be over the center. He is everywhere. So, what have I seen from them? I’ve seen 33 quarterback pressures and eight sacks. It’s a really, really good front.”
Joel mentioned that there’s been some miscommunications, some missed assignments on the offense that’s leading to some of these ailments that you guys are looking to clean up. When you think about it, is it more miscommunication? Is it more you need to work on technique? How do you clean that up in this week when you’re looking at what has gone wrong?
“Yeah, I think there’s a lot of things, and it’s almost play-by-play, and it’s different people. It’s not always the same person. It’s nothing like that. We’ve got to continue to get time on task with our reps and we’ve got to continue to have people do their job. I mean, at the end of the day, this is a business and it’s a performance business, and we all know their jobs and I got to do a better job making sure everybody knows who they’re assigned to, how they’re supposed to get there, and then we got to get them there.”
How is Dawand doing from a performance standpoint, and then also it’s supposed to be really hot again on Sunday and might you guys have to spell him a little bit occasionally again?
“Yeah, that rotation will come down to Kev (Kevin Stefanski) and what he thinks is best. I thought that was a good idea to have preemptive strike and get him some rest. You know, I’m a kid from the south and I thought it was pretty warm the other day in Baltimore, and he’s got 120 pounds on me, so I can imagine he thought it was warm too. So, again, we’ll see what Kev wants to do from a rotational standpoint. But you ask how he’s playing, and I think, like, you look at the second half of football there in that game against the (Baltimore) Ravens, and it’s the best football we’ve seen from Dawand with very good strain and some very good things. Now, again, there’s still the rep of pass pro we’ve got to clean up. We’ve got to get to the point, like, this is not like a, ‘oh, good job, you’re making progress.’ This is like, ‘you’ve got to get your job done. Every play in the National Football League’, and especially at his position, we know how quickly everybody in the stadium will see it if he doesn’t.”
What did you say was the best half that you’ve seen from him? What was he doing better than you had seen earlier?
“You know, I think anytime you have an opportunity on a down block to take number zero, Roquan Smith, and put him into the ground on the other side of the formation, that’s good stuff, and that’s the violence and the expectation of physicality we have for our room. And so just to see him do those things and strain through some of the things, through the hot weather and just continue to play and take steps in every area, not just the run game, but take some better steps in pass protection as well. And there’s still so much more out there, there’s no telling how much more progress we can make with Dawand and we’re going to keep working towards it.”
I know Dawand and some of the other guys on the O-line, every year in training camp, they talk about going against Myles (Garrett) and how helpful that is. When you think about another edge rusher coming in, like Micah, and the other ones you guys have to face, how helpful are those reps, not just in the practice, but in giving guys confidence going up against guys like that?
“I’m not sure how much confidence you get from going against Myles. And it being my first training camp here, I would say I didn’t enjoy every moment of training camp going against Myles. What an outstanding football player he is, and so glad he is going to be in our locker room on Sunday. But you’re exactly right in terms of how it prepares you to go in versus an elite guy. And he jumps in there during one-on-ones over the guard and over the center, much like we just talked about with Micah. So, it is helpful to have one of those freak shows, those werewolves, line up across from you and give you the reps against somebody that is that dominant of a player.”
When you have a guy like Micah that moves around as much as he does, is the communication imperative? I mean, how do you send help when you don’t necessarily know where he’s going to be from down to down?
“Mary Kay (Cabot), you’re asking for the game plan. No, there’s a lot of creativity that has to go into it. But the communication is a paramount. Anytime we want to find an opportunity to get extra hats on him. Another thing we can’t sleep on is when we talk about this front, we got to talk about 52, Rashan Gary, too. He’s a dominant football player, and so the fact that they have both of them makes it even harder to address just one issue. So, again, yeah, we’ve got some creative ways to do it in this plan, and hopefully you like them on Sunday.”
Obviously, the hope is Joel’s going to be able to play on Sunday. The expectation is he will. But that said, if the back tightens up, Teven (Jenkins) just what have you seen getting to work with him this offseason, this training camp?
“Yeah, Teven’s gotten better and better every week. We’ve had a chance to work with him. You go back to the first preseason game, I didn’t think he performed anywhere near he was capable of, and he’s built on those performances, and he’s continued to grow. I think myself and other coaches in the room have a lot of confidence in Teven, if he is the one out there. The experience he had in Chicago (Bears), whether it was playing tackle or playing guard, this is a guy that’s played a lot of football in this league and played good football, and we certainly would expect him to do the same. But I’m going to be right there with you on Joel. I think Joel’s playing as good a football as anybody in the National Football League at the guard position. I think Wyatt’s really close behind him. So, I love what those guards are doing, and we certainly want them out there. We want Teven to have whatever role we can get for him. But at the end of the day, I believe this in my core, Joel is like the modern gladiator. If he can walk, I believe he’ll play on Sunday, and I appreciate that so much.”
Another one of those backup guards, Zak Zinter. He’s been inactive these first couple weeks. What does he need to do to get called up?
“Just keep working. We love Zak and we love the progress he’s making. And again, I’ve mentioned it to you before, I believe, I don’t feel like he had a rookie season last year. He certainly didn’t have a rookie off season. So, he’s not doing anything wrong. He’s just continuing to grow into the NFL football player we want him to be.”
What have you seen out of Jack this week? And are you optimistic that he can get out there?
I don’t know. You know, we’ll see how that thing goes. And he’s another one, certainly a better coach when he’s out there. So, we’ll see. And ultimately Kevin and Jack will talk about that.”
Would you mind talking about the tush push for a second and what you’ve seen with the false starts, and is that something that you guys would try to do? Do you have that in your repertoire and what are your thoughts on it?
“Yeah, the tush push. I’m not sure Joe (Flacco) will be Jalen (Hurts) in that regard. You know, they’re very different in terms of their makeup and everything else. So, I don’t know that we’d ever get to a point where we’re asking Joe to quarterback sneak it four or five times a game and have everybody pushing on him. But at the same time, I think it’s a very effective play. I have a lot of respect for how they run it. I just think there’s more creative ways that we can do similar things and get the surge that we want, the physical get off that we want out of our four-point stances where we’re able to move people. I mean, that’s what we talk about in short yardage and goal line in our room is, if the ball’s on the one-yard line, we’ve got to score with our man, we’ve got to get our man to make this job easy for the back, and got a lot of confidence in our backs and in Q (Quinshon Judkins) to run this thing downhill and go get a yard. Even if everybody fell down on the field, we’ve got a lot of belief in him. So, you combine those two things and we should have a good way to move the sticks in short yardage and goal line and continue to be to able to excel in those situations.”
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