Monken, Orr, & Horton: Ravens Press Conferences 9/2/24

Welcome into the Ravens Press Pass Podcast. It is Monday, September second. The Ravens are repairing for this week's matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs, and today we had a chance to hear from the coordinators. Let's kick things off with Special Teams coordinator Chris Harten.

Good to see everyone today. I hope you guys are all doing well. It was exciting to see us trying to audition for our third part returner out there today, figure out who that was going to be. I thought Andrew or He's did a great job fielding that ball. Kudos to him. But you know, as we get ready for this game, you know, I just you know, been talking to our guys about just going out there, man, and just really just focusing on us, because at the end of the day, that's really who is truly about.

They're going to line up eleven guys.

There's still a lot of unknown who's going to be out there for those guys with it being the first week. So for us, it's really let's focus on us, let's take it, let's take care of our business, and if we do that, I think we'll we'll come out of that game feeling pretty good about how we play questions.

They make a somewhat serious observation off the offensive line, But it just strikes me that tracking punts seems harder than maybe people think.

It's a lot harder than what people think.

You know, this is, which is kind of why you know, when you evaluate guys, it's always easy to say, oh, well, this guy should be able to do it, or this guy can do it because maybe he's his skill set is a receiver, or he's a dB that has pretty good ball skills on the offensive defensive side of the ball. But when you go out there, that ball is in the air and just kind of reading that nose of the football, he's got a little win in his face or behind him that.

Changes the trajectory of the ball. So it is a little bit more difficult than what people think.

How do you balance I want to kickoffs sort of trying to pin the guy's back.

When the terms of putting the ball on the end.

Zone and playing it safe, I don't I don't think when you when you think about playing football, I don't think all you're never are you really trying to play it safe? I think you always want to be as aggressive as you can if it fits what you do.

I don't.

I don't know necessarily say playing safe in football is a is a good thing to say. But you know, for us, it's it's like, what what do we feel like we're good at? If we feel like we're gonna be good at covering kicks, I think it's an advantage for us. If we don't think we're gonna be good at that, then I don't think we put ourselves in situations that we can't handle.

But uh, we just kind of go out there and we just try to go play football.

Three weeks into the three games into this, what.

If you learned about this new kickoff?

You know, as you as you evaluate all.

The plays from across the league, you know, we spend a lot of time. We watch every play, every kickoff, every kickoff return. And I think the thing you saw in the in the preseason is guys are really just trying to figure out, Okay, who's gonna be good blockers because it was a lot of it was a lot of just kind of man schemes. You didn't really see a lot of different schemes and things like that. I think, you know, maybe guys are you know, holding those off

You get the sense that they're gonna be guys who pop under the new rules who maybe didn't under the over hol rules. I mean, is it gonna be a different set of standout players dore or.

I wouldn't necessarily say.

I don't necessarily think there would be a different set of players that will that will stand out. I mean, I think the the all these guys are really good at what they do, So I mean there's there's good football players. I think the play will benefit some guys better than others based on the nature of okay, running down the field, not having to run down the field, the close proximity of the of the player, and how quickly that guy is gonna engage blocking you. But I

I don't know how tight the special teams coaching fraternity is, but I know we had the preseason. But this being the first game of real stuff, I mean, do you feel like everyone in your profession is gonna be kind of looking at you the chiefs coordinator, to see how you guys do as the kind of guinea pigs for this regular season?

Wise, I think you know, it's always it's all when when when you are the first game, everyone's gonna be wondering, Okay, this is a new play. You know, what are they going to be doing? You know, what are we going to see? Are they going to do something different than what they've shown? How are they going to handle different different types of schemes and things like that. So I do think everyone's going to be looking. But I think the other the other thirty teams are gonna do what

I don't.

I think they gonna They're gonna go into based on their own judgments of what they think their team is.

Next up is defensive coordinator Zach Or who's getting ready for his first NFL game as a defensive coordinator. He talked about that today.

Y'all doing y'are doing all right already.

Against the Homes, And how do you read your offense?

I mean that, uh, you know, they can score from any part of the field, just because obviously, uh you know, obviously you know Andy Reid's a great coach, but uh, Patrick Mahomes obviously he's a problem.

I mean he can beat you with his legs, he beat you with his arm from.

Like I said, every part of the field. And you know they have great players around him. So that's what makes them tough to defend. And and you could defend the first play, but you got to defend the second play and the third play.

And that's where they make a lot of the hay at.

When the first play breaks down, he gets to moving around and guys do a great job of uncovering and finding seams to create explosive plays.

So, uh, we definitely have to limit that.

Obviously, you guys help.

'em scoreless in the second half last year. What what do you kind of see as the process to you know, they're gonna come out like Gangbusters after you guys, But it's the process to kind of steepen that curve and and get to that responsiveness even faster.

Or do you think yeah, I think just take a deep breath and go out there and focus on us executing our job. At the end of the day, I think it's about us. If we go out there and do our job, do our responsibility that we're capable of doing it, I think everything will be fine. But I think it just starts with taking a deep breath. You know, it's it's uh, the environment, it's gonna be great.

Embrace that.

But at the end of the day, understand that the football field is gonna be the football field. It's gonna be eleven players on defense versus eleven players on offense, and the game's not gonna change. So I think the big emphasis just focus on us doing what we do and everything's gonna be fine.

That what's a.

Key for defending the quarterback who improvises like he does like he you know, he just he'll chuck the ball out field, they'll hell throw on the run.

What's the key for trying to contain a guy like that?

I mean, just keep on, keep on coming after him. I mean rushers, keep rushing. You gotta be disciplined in your rush lanes, make sure you don't give him a free lane. And then back in coverage. You like I said, you gotta plaster, you gotta cover. You gotta expect to not just defend the first play, you gotta defend the second play, and then just continue to uh do that play after play, play after play, and then when opportunities come for you to make a play on the ball, we gotta make those plays.

Through these three preseason games, what if anything have you learned about the the process of call he plays.

Honestly, honestly, everything preseason was pretty smooth. But it it's I know, it's gonna be a lot different just because it's a lot of different personnel groups. It's more game plan pas uh specific Uh. In the preseason, we kind of just had our call sheet and we just you know, we just ran our plays.

Uh.

But one thing I'll probably take is just you have to be prepared situationally for uh what's happening right now and then what's gonna happen. So obviously, as for example, you're defending a play in the mid round, midfield, alright, they getting the red zone. You have to already be thinking about what that team does in that situation and and what your call is gonna be and how your guys are playing.

Zach, you pushed a little bit just on the stage of this game, but you're you s you yourself as a player, You've been in these moments. Does that factor in when you're on the field or just kind of the different platforms, the prime.

Time and all eyes, Uh, yeah, definitely. I think that. I think that the the experiences.

Just just just settle in, just be yourself. Like I said, the game, it's gonna be a lot of stuff going on, which is great.

You know, it's great. It's great for the game. You should and that as a player, coach, or or whatever.

But at the end of the day, you know, football is football, and you know what you know what players are gonna be ran, you know where you gotta be, and you just gotta focus on doing that.

Each You have a lot to skip Forard and wants to play to me on the task, But do you allow yourself any small moment of reflection that this is you know, your first game is an NFL defensive play caller and or just how far.

You've coming that time.

Definitely, I mean I shoot every every night. It's funny. Every night my wife we read the.

Scripture and stuff out of this jar, and every night before I go to sleep, I pray and I just thank God for uh.

Bless me for this opportunity and put me in this position.

So I I think I reflect, you know, every single night, because I don't want to take it for granted and I want to give thanks where's due.

So tansifent way you want to start Zach going against the two times defending champs.

In place, Hey, yeah, man, I mean, at the end of the day, if the first game is gonna be the first game, no matter who you going against. Obviously we know we got much respect for who we're going against in the Kansas City Chiefs.

Like you said, two time defending champs.

But you know, hey, if if we gotta play am on the schedule, we got to play them.

So it just happens to be first meeting.

Last year in January, it felt like they were beating you guys a little bit. You guys took a couple of uncharacteristic penalties. Kelsey in particular, has that will that be addressed before the game, just a reminder of that given the stage and giving the opponent to you know, keep keep your cool, little defensive.

I mean yeah, man, that goes into every week what we talk about, and especially when you're going in just National Football League. Everybody's a great team in my opinion, but you can't beat yourself. It's already tough to beat a team in this league, but you can't beat yourself by you know, getting penalties and getting uncharacteristic. So that's definitely a focus for us this week.

Sad, you were teammates with a bunch of guys who won the last Super Bowl with the Ravens. They had to break through the Patriots in their time. Have you taken any of their thoughts or their advice on you know, how do how does team get a breakthrough against the Chiefs?

Man, it's it's played play raven football, and we know what that looks like. We know that's that's playing an all out brand and being together, being physical, giving maximum effort and high level execution. So you know, those guys come around a lot and they tell us, you know, ay, all we gotta do on defense, all got to do as an organization is play raven football, like I said, which is playing fast, physical, maximum effort and executing at a high level.

Yeah, what makes it difficult to make the confused or trick a guy like Patrick Mahomes? Where is it not so much about that that it's just about trying to pressure.

Anythings like that?

Yeah, I mean obviously, Uh, he's been around, he's been around for a while.

Uh, he's played a lot of football.

He's played football in the in the biggest games, and you know, to try to stop a guy like that, teams throw a lot at him.

So he seemed pretty much everything. But uh, y, you try to.

You try to, you know, study the film, study study tendencies, see what they do, and you try to, you know, punch and then get ready for the counter punch. So with guys like Patrick Mahomes and coaches like Andy Reid, you gotta be ready to, uh for the next thing that's coming, cause they're thinking a step ahead.

So you gotta think that way too, You do you.

Expect them to maybe go back to ticket more Denfield shots this year?

I mean they had.

Play this week with the rookie worthy its everywhere.

Yeah, I mean shoot from those guys expecting any and everything, you know, but definitely expect them.

They took a lot of shots last year.

I know they didn't you know, connect as much as they wanted to, but they took a lot of shots. And we're very aware of the personnel that they brought in this year. Obviously, the other guys are fast, and you know they want speed.

They always had speed.

On their on their offenses and want to stretch the field, so we're definitely aware of that.

Lastly, we heard from offensive coordinator Todd Munkett.

Preparing for this game, how much do you look at the championship game last year versus push that aside and start over.

Oh well, I mean, first of all, it's an obvious question. It's them, right, So we're gonna watch that game. We're gonna watch the Super Bowl, We're gonna watch you know, the game before we played him against the Bills. We're gonna watch situational things. So sure that's a part of it.

Knowing the questions about the offensive line coming into this season, just how do you think that group has taken shape through training camp, preseason and your comfort level where you guys saying have.

You him in nursing.

Feel real good about those guys. You know, you know, first off, every one of them that you know besides Andrew at left guard. You know, those guys have been with us. You know, and Andrew was with us last year. So they've had a great off season of great camp. So we're real comfortable with them playing. Excited to see him play. It's time to go play and see this. This would be unbelievable that that was it.

I think one of the.

First things Lamar told John about at the end of season after you guys lost, was he wanted it more empowerment, more flexibility before the snap, to get you guys in that to play as I guess, what have you seen from him the wise from that and how helpful do you think back of me against a team like the Chief?

Sure.

I mean we're always looking from the day I got here to empower the quarterback. I think that's the only way you get the most out of a player. It's not just a quarterback position, is to empower them in terms of when you're game planning, what you do on the field, and the tools you give them. Now, we've had a great off season to streamline that, to really wrap it up, you know, and make it better, you don't.

You know, do you do listen to the insight from Derrick Henry and what kind of worked for him in Tennessee and has there been any installation based on you know, what his strengths are what he tells.

You well, I mean, I would just say that from what we've seen in the past, from what we've seen in the off season, what we've seen in training camp, we have a pretty good idea of what he brings the table. Now we're just ready to go play somebody and see that.

Is there an moment for you? I mean, when you read the National previous, one of the big questions that you see everywhere is what is Dereck Henry and the Ravens offense?

It's going to look like?

Are you sort of interested to see it in real life too? Or do you feel like you have a pretty good sets fisted on.

I really don't. I don't think of it that way like I don't. I mean, football's football teams run duo, they run inside zone they run wide zone, they run gap schemes, they run chet protections, they run you know. I mean that's what he's been doing, you know, now what we've done in the past, and how he fits that, and then how we build that around him and the rest of our skill set. We're excited to see it

And you been listening for months how you didn't run the ball enough against the Chiefs when you guys played in January. I would think that, well, they know you've been listening to that. How much do you kind of have to get in a situation where you don't try to overthink yourself and predict what they're going to do in reaction to, you know, potentially having a run heavier plan.

Oh, I'm not overthinking it, you know. I've kind of tried to let that go a little bit. You know, it's this this year, and and we're gonna run the football. We did run the football during the season, so I really don't think of it that way. I really don't listen to that as much other than we're gonna try to do the best week best thing we can do for us to move the football and score points.

TA Obviously you've gotten a lot of questions about two tight ends sets this this offseason. Maybe it's a tough question to answered. How much more comfortable do you feel about, you know, having Mark and Isaiah on the field together this year week one compared to maybe where you were last.

Year, Well feel good, you know.

You know, Mark was out a little bit of last year's training camp and then Zay came in and he got dinged up a little bit, you know, in the preseason. So it's a little bit hard as we work through it. They've been healthy this offseason, have been healthy for the most part, you know, through training camps. We're excited to get those guys on the field. Same time, anything.

Surprised you about the results of the pun catching and competition.

I thought Ben and Uh and Roger were really too casual, to be honest. I mean, they looked athletic enough. They certainly believed in themselves, but they were certainly too casual.

You're listening to the Ravens Press Pass podcast. Also make sure you're subscribed to this feed as well as the Ravens Lounge podcast feed. Thank you so much for listening. We'll be back with you tomorrow