Chris Horton, Todd Monken, Mike Macdonald: Training Camp 8/3 Press Conferences

Welcome into the Ravens Press Pass Podcast. Today is Thursday, August third. Training camp continue today and after practice we had a chance to hear from the coordinators. That's kick things off today with Special Teams coordinator Chris Horton.

Thought, our guys came out today really the last couple of days and really put in some good days of work. Uh really just encouraged by what I'm seeing by all the all the young guys and the veteran guys and the type of leadership that that these guys are taking questions. You know, It's it's awesome.

Uh.

You know jerry N's relationship, I said this before man Ites it's bigger than football, So we do spend a lot of time talking to each other. So when he does show up, I'm excited to see his face. And then when he he jumps in the drills, it's even it's even more exciting because I could tell, you know, maybe maybe he misses it a little bit right. He wants to get out there and he's he's coaching the right thing, So I'm all excited for it. It's always good to see him.

Chris look like uh Jin style for a lot of as friendy.

Folks out of his studio over y'all the season.

Where have you seen his You.

Know, I think it's in everything that he does. Jordan's working. Jordan's working hard. Uh, every day he has a plan. Randy puts him through a workout plan. Jordan, what are you working on? Okay, this is going to be turnover balls, and let's make sure that that's what we're working on. Let's let's get down to the finest little details of turnover balls. If we're working in that pooch area, let's making sure that we're doing the right things with our drop,

That's it comes to the return.

Man, Is that still uns you guys given other guys who got this play.

That's that's DuVernay's role. But obviously, you know, during this time, everybody gets an opportunity.

If you're here, you you.

Want an opportunity, You want to look right. So it's our job as coaches to give everybody an opportunity. A dude's done a great job right, Uh, you know, for a guy that had never returned the ball and then to do what he's done the last couple of years. Man, we're excited about Duvenet, but we're also excited about some of the young guys that we have as well.

Chris, after years of continuity in your ticking game, you've got a lot of turnover now and you're lung snapper in your holder the last couple of years.

Al Cord is his camp in this preseason.

To get him that.

They feed it out every day is valuable.

Every day those guys are out here, they're working on something, whether it's a snap to catch, whether it's whether it's Tyler's snapping the Jordan for holds for Tucker, whether it's punt snaps, whether it's punt full work. It's it's all very important, and I think as we continue to move through our camp, these guys will, uh they're gonna stick together like glue because uh, it's important for us. You know, we've won a lot of games with those three guys.

Chris staking you guys keep and Mitchell coups a break fast you see, how to do discussions.

As you know, k Keaton's a guy that I think, you know, uh, that can go out and play anywhere you ask him to play again. I'm I told him before, you know, I'm gonna put you on kickoff. I want to see you run. I want to see some physicality. And I think he's got the right mindset, he's got the right makeup. We're gonna we're gonna let him return some punts for let him return some kicks, right, We're

That was Special teams coordinator Chris Horden. After practice, we also talked with defensive coordinator Mike McDonald, who discussed his feeling about this defensive unit and what they could happen sore for this year.

All Right, great to see everybody. I feel like I was up here a couple of days ago. So we'll see what what questions you have.

Let's let's set after about har football last.

Uh. Yeah, just you know, he's got great energy and provides a little fire to you know, to the nickel position out there, and it's some a lot of things that we've done that are not so consistent with how he's done things. So considering that learning curve, we're actually impressed with, you know, how how fast he's picked everything up.

But just just a.

Fun guy to be around and just attacking what we're asking to do, so much more.

Impactable us its installed or deafen, and this point.

Is changing Goss in the day.

It's huge, it's huge.

You know, he's obviously a vital, vital part of our of our operation, and he spearheads the charge, so you know, he picks it up very fast. He makes it seem very easy. Uh, and I think the guys follow that lead, you know, and if if if he's going, and he's and and he's rolling, rocking and rolling, then the guys fall online. Then you know, things just happened a little bit more seamlessly than you know. So it's it's good, it's great.

As a coach, throwing down is even more important right now for some of these other corners because maybe especially the young ones, to kind of start separating them.

So I wouldn't say it's more important, I'd just say it's always important. You know, that's something that we're looking for obviously we had a great competition going on, you know, opposite Marlon, So uh, just you know there's gonna be more reps to be had for sure. We'll see how long it lasts. But uh, you know that, I think I think the focus has been there from day one with those guys.

We heard for various players talking about what they've gotten out of their international pH.

Think hear not just outsidelnderers, But do you think he hasn't have a usual, doing able sort of lead as a teacher?

Ban I would say he's got a great ability to relate.

You know, any coach you want to be able to relate to your players, so you have a good relationship. I think that's important thing. Uh it starts with John and who who he hires, you know, and who's on our staff. I'd speak to everybody on our staff. I think everybody does a great job of building rapport with

So, but Chuck's Chuck's just like everybody else. But he's doing a great job.

BI saw Zaly taking a lot of the rents today outside or opposite of Moreland.

What about him makes some papers stepping up for you need here for a long of your time. Well, Jalen's the guy that we're really excited when we drafted him.

So's he's got a lot of ability and uh, he's a very smart players.

He's versatile, he can play multiple spots. Uh, but you know, this is an.

Opportunity for him to go to go show what he can do and and and see if he can earn himself a job.

So opportunities out there as.

He improved that are any different whatever, as you look better like you're kamorre Un.

Oh yeah, I would say it's a gradual improvement, you know, but with the whole with the whole defense. Right now, we're in we're in week two, we're in it, we're in pads. The emphasis is let's go all right, We're not waiting around. It's not processed for we're rolling okay, So we're we're trying to get ready for for next week when we tee it off against the Eagles, and then I've ultimately, you know, against Houston week one, so

Like Duran has dot here in plays where they stabbed himself as a vocal leader.

Since he left, he's really like stepped up on the defensive line and established himself to it's like their us.

Yeah, I think we've spoke to it the other day very well. I mean, we got a great group right there, and they're not necessarily a young group. I mean they're not not green in that way. They are young, but they're not green. I mean, off the top of my head. Michael Pierce has done a great job. He's been here all off season. Brent Urban done a great job. Broderick Washington is a stalwart in the middle for US. Leads through action and.

Not his words.

Justin Mattabeke, same deal, comes to work every day, plays extremely hard. There's a group that feeds off one another. Travis Jones, second year guy. You would never guess he's a second year guy.

The list goes on.

So is there one guy that's kind of the head of the group, you know, maybe maybe not maybe by day, but really proud of their approach, the competitiveness with him, and then the ability you know that they look they're they're fighting for past rush snaps too, So a lot of competition in that room as well.

To future players to work on tackling when there's very little to no tax ling a log and has that impacted what you.

See in games in terms of guys for killingies. That's a great question. The tackling taxing.

Tackling is a lost art, you know, and the rules really uh make it challenging. Like you said, you know to do it, so you have to be creative and what you do it now, I will say when we practice, it's always angles to the ball, making sure we have the ball west, tearing off blocks, making sure we're in position and make a tackle, and then the tempo kind

Thoughts talked about I was going to embrace kind of multipowerful aspect for this pass rush.

But does that require a kind of different mentality when you're out there on on yeah, get out of a hugeague. Well, I think any good pass rusher is going to start with power, you know.

I think if you just go down the list of the top pass rushers throughout the league, they have some sort of power if you if you have no if you have no threat of power, you know, tackles are just not going to respect it and the rest of your stuff isn't going to be set up as well.

But if you watch, he's got a great long arm and you know he's working on that. I know that he's working on it today with with Chuck out there during Indy. So that's a power. I think it showed up last year on tape too.

I think you're gonna I think you see when you turn the tape on, is he's got a great long arm and then the counter's off it. But just like any great pass rusher, you've got to have that element, you know, if you're you know, gonna have any success you maybe at the end of his season last year with something you could really build on. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely, absolutely your second how much to feel ball the tea.

Yeah, it's a great question. I think you go in with an idea of what you have to build to.

That picture is clear from the from the get go, but it's still within the framework of who do we have and what do they do and what can they do, and then we can kind of take it as it goes from right there. So I've alluded to this a lot of times, but when our personnel became into focus throughout the middle of the year, it really dictated what we could and couldn't do schematically and narrowed the focus.

Time, here's.

Camp On.

Yeah, Kyle, Like we've said, he's a guy that we're gonna be able to move around. Right now, he's trying to We're trying to get him really good at safety with the ability to move him in a different, different spot.

So please where he's at.

Uh, you know, I think he started out camp really well, hasn't had as much ball production over the last couple of days.

So that's something that we're going to challenge him, you know, to be able to do moving forward throughout camp and going into season.

Why you see.

Comply you with His name is pet three, growing up around this with his dad. Does that notice full from South Calmsboro in the meetings?

Yeah, I would say it definitely shows itself off off the fielding in the building.

You love his approach.

He's here every morning working out when I'm in there with the guys and going through the process. The training room speaks very highly of him and his approach and his mentality on the field. My message to him was just let's go. Let's go compete, all right, stay take

That was Raven's defensive coordinator Mike McDonald, who's heading into his second year as a team's play caller on that side of the ball. And of course we also talked with offensive coordinator Todd Munkett. There's lots of excitement about Todd going into his first season as the Ravens offensive coordinator, and he discussed his thoughts going into this year.

How'd you like the the tempo so far?

I know today was kind of more gold for it, but even when they had a patch of the oliver this week.

How did you think the temple year? It's a work in progress. We're not one out nearly where we need to be, and we shouldn't be so because that it's early in camp, but we got we got a lot of work to do. It's your second here.

Tight ends out there are showing well.

First off, we've got to figure out on the roster, be it those two players whoever we have, do we have an individual here that can play why it can be a blocking tight end, can do some things in line after losing the young man they had last year, so you know, and with Pat being out, so that that's what we need to see from them. We know we know Zay is an excellent receiving tight end, and we got to take the next step with a number of those guys.

Uh.

Once we really we'll know a lot more once we go to practice against the Redskins, we play some preseason games where we're at you're starting at Descri just do not have j Well, we'd love to have JK out there. I mean, there's there's no question about it. And we look forward when he does get out there. I don't control that when I control us what we do each day on the practice field, and we'll be excited when he gets back.

Tell us that he talks to him if he talked to him at all.

I talked to him every day. I told him every day. I don't know. That's a big smile on his face, and I don't know what else to say. I mean, he's there every day, so when he's out there, we'll be fired up. He's out there.

Rest three Okay, how far behind is he as far as learning this out goes? How much catching up is he have to do?

He actually gets in a great question because he hasn't repped, so it's hard for me to know that when he's not out there. It's just the way it is. I mean, he's not out there, so we'll find out when he does get out there, but we're excited. I know he's kind of being a little you know, smart alect there, but I'm just saying in general, when he gets out there, we'll be excited to have him talk.

To know guy practice Like you don't did that kind of start in the end?

How what make you capt starting about?

Oh?

I don't know.

I mean, think about it. They come out here wearing our players jerseys. I mean, how cool is that?

You know?

Our players get to live out their dream and get paid for something they were they've been playing since they were little kids like them. And to me, that's really easy. To me that that's not hard. That's easy. That's that's Todd Munkin at eight years old that was dying to get an autograph and meet his favorite player. And that's not hard. That's actually really really easy, And uh, you wish you could do it for all of them, Todd.

Is it tough to kind of projected where in office when you don't have guys like Novels and Baitman out there who are going to pieces.

Well, right now, it's not hard to project because we're not really good right now, got a long ways to go cool. It was talks about sleeping aside and say the same guy and you've been.

Whoever's out there, what do you expect from them to be other?

Well, there's a certain expectation of the position, right whoever's out there, whoever starts for the Ravens, there's an expectation there, whether it is Salah or John you know, whoever that might be. I think there's some great competition there and we look forward again. Is you keep moving into camp, you get more practices and paths, and you go against some other teams, you get a little better idea of what you can expect.

I've seen the chemistry between Labar and Mark Andrews to go off script for the last few years with great success. When you're coming in it with a new system, how do you balance not wanting to stifle that but also wanting to play within the offense within the system.

Great question. You don't want to take away creativity, a great chemistry that players have. But we've got to continue to improve all of our quarterbacks ability to check the ball down, to get it to outlets running backs, getting them more involved. And Mark still being a big part of that mark is going to be a big part

Running backs throughout the league have voice that they're feeling undervalued.

How has it evolved their word and how wrong violence?

What?

Okay? Which one do you want?

Man?

Do you want me to Are you wanted me to comment on their feeling undervalued or do you want to comment on their roles? First of all, I will just say this about any position, And first of all, I'm never going to talk about another man's business. That that is something they have to take care of. Okay, So, but running backs, in my opinion, are highly valued in this league. The running backs we have are highly valued. To me, I think any player that makes an NFL

How do you've altered they're used of running backs all the time you've been to.

See I got the first one? You would let me go? Would you you went to the next one? I was waiting on that one. Now the value? Okay, So trying to determine with all of your players what you can do to maximize their skill set, what got them here. If you're lucky enough to have in every down running back, that's different. If you have other guys that have certain traits, then you try to utilize that, whether downhill, right between

Quoted saying that is.

The most mocked n he's ever seen in the team coming into a new organization and have that with buy in when your players. Does that mean for you and your team?

You know?

I don't, I don't. I don't know. I appreciate Mark saying that it'll only matter what we do on Sundays, you know what we do every day. I mean, that's being a pro. I wasn't here in the past, so I can't speak to what it looked like before. Am I appreciative or locked in? Yes, that's that's what being a pro is. That this is a job. This this is a job. I don't know else to say it. I mean, we get to we get to play a kid's game, but no, make don't do make any mistake

Any tough guys down play but also actually gets a fetistry pluck, he's a dollon again, it's.

Not for my way that's one thing to go out of downs.

Some people looks like those time and get that next to guards.

Is that something that's as weally? I mean when you see that a lot in new players, or is that something I used.

To maybe litter?

He's a natural run after catch guys. Some guys have more ability that way. Lamar has a unique trait with the ball in his hands. Not every quarterback does. Some guys are more confident. If they played running back as a youngster growing up and then they moved later in life, they have some running skills to them. Tight ends in the NFL that grew up as air raid receivers have route running skills, so sometimes you develop that at a

I mentioned that the.

Guys have specific traits. Mitchell's a young guy like Keith Mitchell is a young.

Guy in one of those trades on screen.

He's had some nice plays Dur in the last few days because you've seen out of him that's going to stood out see other side.

With his speed, well, he's got elead speed. I mean, he does have that, so getting him to the edge. He has quickness about him. He can be possibly be a matchup player, but he works awfully hard. He's diligent in the meeting rooms, taking good notes, ask good questions. If he doesn't know, he'll let you know. When we had a miscommunication yesterday and practice, he explained it the way you'd want to explain this. That what I heard, this is what I thought the quarterback meant, and that

That was Raven's offensive coordinator Todd Munkin. You also heard from DC Mike McDonald and special teams coordinator Chris Horton. Now, if you haven't done so, already, leave a rating in a review here on the Ravens Press Pass podcast, and also go check out the Lounge podcast feed, Ryan make and I have regular guests to stop by the lounge. We also do full breakdowns of everything that we're seeing out there on the practice field, so check out that