Coordinators: Ravens Practice 9/21 Press Conferences

Today on the Ravens Press Pass podcast, we had a chance to hear from the coordinators on the squad. So let's kick things off with Special teams coordinator Chris Horton.

Good to see everyone.

Hope everyone's doing well. We're heading to week three and for us, you know, we're just looking out to go out there and just really just play our best football. We still haven't as a unit, we still haven't done that yet. And uh, I know one thing, I know, our guys, our guys are working hard, and uh, pretty soon we're gonna we're gonna take off. You know, these guys, these guys want to be good, they want to be great. We got to make sure we just continue to take

I know it's always a surprise when when Justin Tucker Bess is a field goal and and that will not think them nefty nine yards? But is there? I know with him, you have so much confidence in him. What is the range where you guys are kind of like, all right, let's let's probably not say talk around there.

You know, I think on the on the daylight on a day like that, it's a it's a fair question. We we do go back and forth of you know, uh with with Randy and and Harve's you know, and those situations of saying, hey, is this one we we want to go for. We want to go ahead and go out there and kick and if if we feel good about it, we put Tuck out there, because he does he does have that capability to go out there and make that kick, and we've seen that done numerous times.

Juris going on right here.

Have you had guys for job buck returned and access and making decisions on maybe not putting it on got like Kyle Hamilton or because you're wanting to him more on defense or the injuries and stuff.

Is that something guy goes into your process?

You know, it is something that goes into our process. I think it's one of those things though, you know where when you start you guys start going down, then you know, all all hands on deck, right, and I think I think it comes to that point of Okay, well what can this guy do for us? Uh, he is a valuable player, and he is playing maybe more on office and defense. You know, how can he still help us? And those guys they want to do it because because it's all about it's all about the team, right,

That's what happened on the.

You know, Jeff, it's just like, uh, it's just one of those things.

Right.

You You'll go back, you sit back, you're sitting on the sideline and you're asking yourself, man, how could that happen?

Like?

Right, these are things we we we prepare for and then when you watch the tape, you see how those things happen. Right, we don't fully execute the punt coverage. It's just not one guy, you know, it's it's it's all eleven and including myself. Right I'm watching the tape like, hey, could I have told this guy maybe something a little bit different?

So it was all of us. We watched it.

Uh, we got it correct it We you know, we feel we feel pretty good about, you know, putting those guys out there and making place from here on.

That.

That was special teams coordinator Chris Horton. You're listening to the Ravens Press Pass podcast. We also heard from offensive coordinator Todd Munken.

Todd, how pleased were you with the way the offense looked in Cincinnati compared to the week before?

Well, it was a hell of a lot better.

Just in terms of operation communication myself, lamar huddle breaking the huddle not perfect, still left some things out there, just in terms of operation. To me, that's the start of it. Otherwise you have a lot of drag. You know, it doesn't look like you wanted to look like. So we were. I was pleased with that part of it. Obviously the guys did are a great job of executing, but it started with the operation.

So not as much dragged as we don't want to go.

There this past week, No, not as much, not as much wasted plays like not as many just not giving yourself a chance to be successful. And talked about that last week. So that's it's still an ongoing process. What we do each week, what we do, well, what they do, what we put on the plane, and then carrying that over to Sunday.

Tied for the fewest amount of three announcers in offense. Just can you talk about the importance of getting that first first down and.

How you practice and you know, work to get that first watch.

Yeah, what's crazy is that first game?

You know it we had the same you know we you know, like said half the battles getting that first first down and then we just stalled and we just just a lot of drag.

But as I always say, like.

Overall statistics, just make you feel good because it really doesn't make for this week. Like our job is to do the same thing this week, if that makes sense. I'm not trying to be mean or but it's really weak to week. It's you can't carry that over and say, well, hey, wait a minute, you know, no, we got to do it each week. That's that's the that's what we're paid to do, and that is to try to find a way each week to do that and then continue drives. But it is it is important to get that first

Yes, Lamarns Blowers entrepreneur is very evident how much fun they were having in that game?

How much fun did you have?

Oh, it's never fun. Game day is not fun.

Oh no, everybody says that. I mean, it's stressful as hell. But I enjoy watching our guys play. I enjoy coaching our players. I think we've got a great group of young guys. You know, it's fun to come out every day and come to the meeting rooms with those guys.

That that I enjoy. But I mean it's a job, you know.

Everything builds up to basically game day, you know, And I don't take that lightly, you know, So it's it is what it is. I mean, you fight like heck during the week to get the looks you want and try to carry that over on Sunday and put the guys in the best position to be successful.

Speaking quick the week and thats Z has been pretty think to those first two weeks, how much of that is situational?

How much is it?

Is it?

Obviously he's you know, he's a guy who who's got a lot of talent.

Well, the above, I mean, you're gonna put any player in a position that gives them the best chance to be successful, wherever that might be. You know, you're not gonna put a tight end out there to run a take route normally, you're gonna put them where they can be successful. You put za where you think you can be successful. We dictate some of that. The defense dictates some of that. Number of reps dictate some of that. Uh style of game. It is like this week we

Right.

That's just the way it works, right, And so you get more opportunities to showcase your ability, which is what this like every skill player is looking to do. So we do try to find ways to get all of our players involved as best we can.

And you about him in respect that he may be surprised us and stood out for Guidan as it.

Looked, Well, I'm just gonna go beyond his skill set, because that's that's easy to see.

I think you can being around him.

You just feel his contagious spirit, his youthfulness, his smile, his.

Approach every day.

I don't know if I've ever come to work, which hopefully I've tried to do the exact same thing. But he's got a smile on his face. He loves playing football, which are all of our guys do. But again, it's just, uh, it's fun to be around. He's got a little bit of an absence of fear. You know, he doesn't there. I think he's expected to have success, and that's half the battle when you're a young player is to expect to have success, and he expects to have success.

That's someone you've been in a number of places. How rare and how valuable is it to have someone like Patrick McCarey who can play all five offensive line spots. He started at multiple spots over the course of his career, knowing that you know injuries are going to happen over the course of the season.

Yeah, it feels like you're trying to get him a contract extension here by my comments here, First of all, it's extremely valuable anybody that makes I said it way back when whoever makes our fifty three men roster and or as part of our practice squad is elite.

They're elite. I mean, they're here for a.

Reason because you feel good that if something were to happen at any given position, the expectation is that those players will go in and play at a high level. And we should expect that. And he did that, you know, and he has done that. That wasn't new. We were not surprised that he played at a very high level.

Todd.

You guys just brought back King and Drake who was here last year. I know, he just got here. But is there any familiarities in the offense that he can kind of grasp from what he was doing last year.

With the Ravens.

I think so there's some carryover, you know. Some of the verbiage is the same, some of it's different, you know. So but again it's it's getting up to speed with what the little different nuances are. But inside zones, inside zone, outside zone, gap schemes, a flat route, a wheel route, you know, I mean, it's all the same. We just got to get him up to speed, and if he ends up being up at some point, then you know, you start with a certain base of plays that that

Along those lines, is it anywhere difficult for he's lining to line up where they physically are. You know, on that final drive.

You're kind basically the message certain guys along that the line they're having to dues a lot of on the left side of where you see on the right side. Is that just an expectation for the DALs.

Well, it's a credit to those guys, you know, it's a credit to those guys being able to move around and be able to play both sides.

I know you've been asked about being reunited with Totell.

Bet in junior, But now that you've been around it for a few months, what's maybe the biggest difference you see out of him just as a person from twenty nineteen.

Oh, He's always from a person standpoint, Odell's always been a fantastic person.

You know, people gravitate to him. He's got a great towards him.

He's got a great personality, he's got great charisma, and he loves playing football. He loves being around the locker room. He loves the guys. You know, you see I've said this before. I think you see, like any of us, as you, as you age, you mature, he may think differently.

And or he's done a great job with our younger guys.

I think he's probably he's always been good at that, but I think he feels more sense of being a little bit older how important that is for the younger players.

That was Todd Munkin And last but not least, we heard from defensive coordinator Mike McDonald.

Yeah, you know it's I wasn't not surprised. I mean said we had one hundred percent confidence in him, and he played a great game and obviously with the huge play, the huge pick there in the red zone. So uh, you know, changed a bunch of expected points in the game, and just obviously excited about how he played. But we're expecting to keep keep moving just like the rest of the defense. We got a long way to go. So another challenge this week, but definitely definitely played a great games.

Run the change and bridges.

Uh, well, you know that the base runs are are the same, you know, probably it's more of the quarterback designed runs where you know they wanted to ultimately end up in the quarterbacks hands. I would imagine go down a little bit, but uh uh, and those are different types of situations that pop up in the game. But it's it's uh, it's more similar than you than you'd anticipate.

Mike be a.

PK's got four penalties in two weeks, the fifteen year od variety. Is that a fine line to walk between telling him to be a little smarter and not want to kind of fail.

Some of this aggressive, specific simple views that you play.

I think you, I think you hit it spot on.

That's exactly That's exactly the message with him, and he knows, you know, we're we've talked about it, and he's, uh, he's well aware of the penalties. But uh, I don't, I don't. I don't foresee it being an issue moving forward. I think it's more of a uh thing of chance, you know, based on how he's played in things. But he's got to make some better decisions than some of those moments, and he will.

U Coach Harp thought about how active clown he was.

He's a guy who's been in the league a long time, but you haven't had him that long. Are you still kind of learning things you can do with him or you have a pretty good handle.

I'm just going about that process.

Yeah, that's an interesting question. I think you're always looking to find ways for guys to do things they do well. So I think that how how how he can be disruptive in the run game and how you can move them around in the past game. I think, you know, we'll continue to find ways to build on just like everybody else. But yeah, so he's doing the things that we imagined to do, so hopefully hopefully keep it rolling.

Like Girl Commen and Patrick and gotten off the Shrunks, they're kind of doing what they do. It's curious what you think their influence has been on each other from the communication recognition standpoint terms of what you guys, you know, want a two week two weeks.

I just I just think, I think you're talking about two great players that have a passion for the game and work extremely hard and care about their teammates and care about our defense and how well we perform and want to lead both through their actions and both through how they handled themselves on a daily basis. And uh as a coaching staff, you know, give a great shout out to Zach. I mean, he's done a tremendous job of building that camaraderie throughout the whole room. I wouldn't

So with our Darius Washington going down, what have you seen from Arthur Mallett? I mean, I know he missed most of training camp with the hamstring, but since he's gotten back on the field the last few weeks and him potentially obviously haven't experienced at the Naples.

Yeah, I haven't seen anything different than what we saw when we wanted to sign him versus when he first got here. Obviously had the setback during camp, but he's right there so you know, if and when his opportunity comes along, just like Gino last week, you know, let's roll. You know, it's very confident in him coming in and doing a great job, when after.

That was Mike McDonald. You also heard from Todd dun and Chris Horton, So go ahead, it's hit that subscribe button if you haven't done so already, and do the same over the Lounge feed as well. Also make sure you leave a rating and a review. Thanks for listening, and we'll be back with you tomorrow for Coach Harball's Friday presser.