Quarterbacks Coach Mike Bajakian (8.8.26)

Let’s start with Shedeur (Sanders) How has he been doing this entire camp, and how do you think he’s handling himself in this quarterback competition?

“They’re working hard. All our guys are working hard. Shedeur is putting in the time — he’s studying, working physically, and that goes for all of our guys. It’s training camp, right? There’s nothing else in life besides football at this point, for players and coaches. He’s done a good job of taking care of the ball. He’s continued where he left off with the little things — technique, footwork, body position. He’s doing a good job.”

We’ve talked to Shedeur so much about the pre-snap operation — changing plays, making checks, cadences. As a quarterbacks coach, when you think about a clean pre-snap operation for the quarterback, step by step, what does that look like?

“It depends on the play call. Depends on each quarterback’s own process. Playing quarterback, to me, is the hardest position in all of sports. I think you asked me in the spring what the number one trait is that I look for in a quarterback — you have to process information so quickly. That’s what separates that position from every other. There’s a lot that goes into it, from front identification to coverage identification — is it run, is it pass, is it man, is it zone? You have to be able to process information quickly and operate. That comes with reps, with experience, with work.”

How have you seen him improve on that recognition — his knowledge of the game?

“And that goes for everybody. I’m a young man of 50-something — I won’t give you the exact age — but we’re always growing, always learning, no matter how old we are or what our role is. Deshaun, as a multi-year vet, will tell you he’s continuing to learn. Shedeur, as a second-year player, is doing that too. Coach Monken talked about phase one, two and three of the offseason, of the spring. Then we come to training camp, and each time we go through an install, we’re putting another layer of coat on, and their understanding gets deeper and deeper. Now that we’re in training camp, this is the third or fourth layer we’re putting on, and you get into a deeper understanding of all the little details — from the physical fundamentals to the thought process behind the play, even the thought process behind the call. Coach Monken and I talk to the players a lot about the intent behind a specific play call. That’s where we’re continuing to add those layers.”

It looked like Deshaun might have had his best practices Wednesday and Friday, the last few times he was with the first team. Do you agree, and what have you seen — how has he improved over these nine days?

“He threw some interceptions early, and he’s done a good job of protecting the football as of late. There was a string of three or four practices — the days run together — where there were zero picks from him. So he’s done a good job of that. Same as I said with Shedeur — the more comfortable you are in the scheme and with the techniques, the quicker you can react and the more decisive you can be. Speed of the game at the quarterback position isn’t about running fast, it’s about how quickly you can process information and how decisive you can be. On his good days, he’s been decisive, his anticipation’s been on point, and he’s getting rid of the ball on time without having to move around in the pocket.”

There have been 17 interceptions through nine practices — an incredible number. Do you think that’s more on the quarterbacks or the defense?

“It’s an incredible number, it’s a lot. I’d have to go back and watch every single practice, every rep, every interception. There’s a lot that goes into it — quarterbacks with timing and decisiveness, ball location, the decision-making process, other techniques like footwork. Sometimes it’s a spacing issue, sometimes a rush issue. I’m not going to pinpoint it on any one thing.”

You said in the spring you thought once you got to training camp it wouldn’t take long for a leader in the quarterback competition to emerge. Nine days in, has one emerged?

“I’m going to let Coach Monken address any questions related to where we are on the depth chart.”

When you talk about processing information — we see the perfect-play periods where you’re working on the pre-snap reads and getting aligned. How do you work on the post-snap piece, speeding that process up for the quarterback?

“That’s a great question, and I can’t tell you how much time I’ve dedicated to trying to master that. As a teacher, it’s about how you teach them to think. I use the word ‘triggers’ a lot — I ask my guys all the time, ‘What’s the first thing that pops into your head when you hear X, Y or Z? What’s the next thing?’ You can’t belabor one thing or another. Our whole meeting structure is designed to make guys think quick. I’m a Jersey guy, I talk fast — on purpose, because it makes you think fast. I listen to my podcasts at 2x speed, and that makes me think a lot faster. Same thing goes for quarterbacks — how can we make them think faster? I don’t present a play and leave it up there the whole time and ask about footwork and progression. I flash it up there quickly and make them give me the information back quickly. There’s a lot you can do in the meeting room to help them process post-snap, and a lot you can do on the field. You might see a split-safety shell with a certain drop working a progression, and then at the snap there’s rotation — the progression changes, the footwork and rhythm subtly change. I’ve got to emulate that in individual work.”

What goes into affecting the cadence, and why might that be difficult sometimes for younger quarterbacks?

“There’s a lot that goes into it — from voice intonation to timing to being an actor the whole time. We’re not just going through a cadence to go through a cadence. At the same time we’re going through the cadence, we’re trying to feed the quarterback information from the defense — there could be different looks that change his thought process. So it’s not just the verbalizing and intonation that make it convincing, it’s what other information we’re processing, why we’re going through that cadence, what we’re trying to disguise or get. There’s a ton that goes into mastering that. You look at some of the best who’ve done it — Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning — wily vets who perfected that part of their craft over years and years.”

You also have a rotation at center in front of your quarterbacks. How much does that impact the details we’re talking about, and is that something you’d like to see Coach Monken solidify to give some stability there?

“You have to control what you can control, which is your own performance and what you put into it. This time of year, in training camp, you’re going to play with a lot of different guys. I don’t think there’s a lot to that necessarily right now. Would it help? Yeah — once we get going, and especially once we get into the season, it’s important to have that chemistry with the center, the O-line, the receivers and tight ends. I think that’s relevant.”

In Deshaun’s case, how much do you have to take into account that he’s coming off surgeries and hasn’t played in almost two years — the rust and confidence piece?

“That was more relevant in the spring, and it’ll pop up again as we get into games. In my conversations with Deshaun, his physical health came first, and I wanted to make sure there’d be no repercussion for him physically from what we were doing on the field. He’s assured me — he said, ‘Coach, I’m in the best shape of my life, let’s take the reins off and go.’ So it hasn’t been a consideration in anything we’ve done, physically or mentally, in his preparation.”

When you broke for the spring, what message did you give Deshaun, Shedeur, Dillon and [name unclear] about coming back?

“There’s a lot to it. Number one, it’s about physical conditioning. I have a college background, and in college you get the guys year-round — in the summer, they’re training. So the emphasis was to make sure, physically, you’re ready to go. And because this is such a mentally taxing job, stay sharp with installs, schemes, protections, video — they have access to all our cut-ups all the time. So the message was to stay sharp with the procedures, calls and schemes we have.”

How do you think they’ve handled that here in the first week?

“It’s a little different in training camp than in the spring, for a lot of reasons. In the spring you have Monday through Thursday, three-day weekends, four hours at a time, then six hours at a time — they’ve got a lot of free time to do extra prep on their own. We install one and two, then review, then install three, then maybe a few days off. It doesn’t come at them nearly as fast. In training camp, it’s day after day — it’s like drinking water through a fire hose. That’s not just here, that’s everywhere, the whole NFL and college. That’s the difference between spring and training camp, and then the season kind of emulates training camp — we put in a game plan Monday as a staff, hand it to them Tuesday morning, and they’ve got to process and absorb a lot of information quickly.”

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