Press Pass: Doug Pederson

it's not strength yet. The strength is not back necessarily. So um, we just want to kind of give him, give him this week and and just sort of monitor that, get him, get him all the treatment he can and and uh, get him, get him through the buy and then and then we'll see. So where he's at after that, Please send by the game. Who set him back to the options are starting that first five? I don't think so,

not at all. Um. You know, again, he he's he's had a lot of reps in there and and uh his preseason reps in there, and and uh, uh it wouldn't it wouldn't set him back. And he again he's he's one of those kids. Very sharp kid, a studious kid. I wouldn't wouldn't set him back at all. He's fine, Um, you know, just just getting treatment on it and and uh but but he came out of the game good. He's good to go. Carson came out good, you know, a little sort today. But they're all sore, you know,

only two days removed from from the game. So um, just uh, just normal normal game wear and tear. And yeah, you know, the biggest the biggest thing really, and it's what you see on film, is that the the aggressive style. I mean, they're they love to to get after the pastor they'll they'll they'll bring those two middle backers. Um, you know, Shazier and Timmins will bring both of those guys. And um, you know, one thing you notice too is they love to keep their eyes on the quarterback and

vision on the quarterback. And so it becomes um for any quarterback, you know, where where you're looking in the progression of plays. Um, you know, you gotta gotta be able to look you look off and and do some different things that way. And then uh, um you know, because it's really when teams that play man I don't want to say it's easy, but man coverage is man coverage. You know what you're gonna get. When it's zone, it's a little bit harder. You gotta be a little more

detailed and precise in your routes and your progressions. Four tee stealers three stealers start. But is different than yeah, they were, they were a little similar. This the Steelers actually play a true thirty four. I mean, you know, you'll see more of that front with it with this group, and um, you know, still play their under front and overfront and and mix it up a little bit and there in their base packages. So uh yeah, as far as the three games this is, this is more of

a thirty four look you see. You know that that's That's one of his strength obviously, is he wants to get better every single day. And uh again, in here this morning, he and chasing the quarterbacks and and and starting in on Pittsburgh, and um, I mean, his his his own motivation. He he wants to be he wants to be good. I mean, he wants to be one of the top quarterbacks in the National Football League at some point and and um, you know he he looks

at excuse me. He looks at the games and goes, you know, man, I could have I could have done that better on that player. My eyes could have been here, I could have sped my feet up on this this drop. And those are all things that come with playing and with time. And again, you know he attacks every day that way. Um, and it's a it's a true sign of a professional that that uh uh he can he can handle his craft and wants to develop his craft

that way. With Ben, well, you know, the first couple of games, I mean obviously, uh, he's such a smart guy. He's such a I mean they're they're on a they're on a almost a different level they're but they're on the same page, you know, offensively with his receivers and backs, and you see him get the ball out of his hand extremely fast, and um, you know, you're they're not not getting to the quarterback. Uh, defenses aren't getting there

just because of that. And you know, he's so smart and and uh, it's fun to watch him really and how he manages that that offense and how he kind of commands uh that team and and uh, you know, everybody rallies around him and and you know obviously a big leader and and uh you know, as you know, it's a he's a tough guy to to get to because because of that, you know, is quarterback. What do you think about Ben Well, you know, um, I think because of his size. Um, you know, he's hard to

bring down. I think the way he uh, I know, the older you get, the more you have to you know, put put emphasis on your offseason programs and and your diet and exercise and all that kind of stuff and and um and then and then just how how mentally sharp you can be, and and knowing your offense inside and out and knowing your personnel and moving the guys around getting the ball out of your hand. It's much like what Peyton does at the end of end of his career. He was he was getting that ball out

of his hand extremely fast. And and that's tough. That's tough when you when you go up against you know, a pass rush like we have, getting the ball out of your hand. Um, it can it can frustrate a defense. I mean, that's that's that's what we try to pride ourselves offensively, the same way you know with Carson, get the ball out of your hand and just keep pressure

on the defense. Starter. You referenced Steers and Big Band and what they did when he was a rookie as type of example, what did you see back then, um, that that they did well for reading? Yeah, you know obviously the size, the arm strength, UM. Carson probably a little bit better, UM athlete, Um, you know, moving around

a little bit. Um. And and then the fact that you know they had great, great defenses around Ben, and and a running game and special teams and and um you can utilize all three of those and and and help your young quarterbacks that way. UM. You've seen it, you know time and time again with with teams that have that formula can be successful early with a young quarterback. Yeah. You know, Ben is you know, one of the best

quarterbacks in the league of extending plays. And um, the one thing he does well is is many things he does well, but one of them is he keeps his eyes down the field. And and it's something that uh, you know, UM, as defensive backs, you sometimes you get caught looking into the backfield and sort of let your coverage down and and and you know this is a week with the with the weapons they have on offense, you gotta just you gotta just stick to your guy

and maintain discipline that way throughout the entire play. More utilized Guyberg you got. You got to maintain an advantage sort of the unscouted look that a defense may not have seen on film. Um, you're seeing a ton of uh, you know, drop eight into coverage down Their teams are throwing the ball so much down there. You know, the run game becomes real important. Uh down there, the RPO

things with the quarterbacks become become important down there. Um. You know, our our our decision making, our timing, our accuracy. We talk about this stuff every day. Um. And and particularly in the red zone where where Carson has to be on point. Um. And then utilize in your strength, utilize your personnel. You know, a DGB, a tall receiver, Jordan a tall receiver the other day, the screen inside the five, things like that, so you kind of keep

things mixed up and use your personnel that way. Well, um, if you're counting, Matt Tobin is a third tight end right now. Um. Yeah, well it just yeah, it helps you. It helps you obviously in the run game. You got bigger bodies protecting the edge. But at the same time, you can still throw the football with with him in the football game, and uh um, it's it's an advantage I think sometimes, um, you know, with Trey Selik or

with Art's in there. Um, it creates a little bit of a matchup and and you can you can you can kind of set the defense based on based on the personnel and the and the formation called, and and that can give you an advantage as well. Talk off during the week about necessarily on the field, you go out in the field expose himself just because he really could help himself. And I'm wondering, do you think that there's a way to rewire quarterback. I think it's hard

to rewire him. Um. I think you just need to constantly keep talking with him and uh um, showing him, you know, going back and showing him those plays on tape and and just just making him aware and conscious of Hey, you know again, as I mentioned before, I don't need the extra yard right here. It's okay to throw the ball away, it's okay to you know, step out of bounds or slide and and just keep showing him over and over and over again because not only

his longevity, but obviously for the team as well. And you want to make sure that your quarterback is UM, especially your starting quarterback is the guy that's protecting themselves the most. Where you're finding the back to the three tights can sometimes use two modelsive linement at boil and back to the Sometimes you satisfied with that or you see yourself adding a full background. UM. You don't ever want to take offensive players off the field and put

d lineman an offensive lineman on the field. But at the same time, you can create some bigger size, bigger bodies, you know in the run game. UM down the road as we go, if you know, if we can develop a fullback at some point, we will do that. We can. We're constantly looking at that at that position, not only around the National Football League but on our roster. But right now the three tight end set with Matt Tobin

in there has has proven beneficial. We're getting out of it what we need to and we just got to continue to develop. That package is pretty much caught up after all the time you know in this stas because you want to you know, yeah, yeah for sure, and and he's he's he's in a good position right now and having four running backs available, you know, on game day is also it helps Ryan, it helps Darren. It gives them a break and they're not they're not, you know,

um taking the pounding every single play. But at the same time, Windell gives you that to him and Kenyon Barner both give you that explosiveness that you want to tell back. And and uh, you know one thing Windell has two it's got great hands and the ability to catch the ball out of the backfield. So it's something that we can we can continue to work follow Is that something you can see going forward? Just like, yeah, yeah,

I think so. And and uh, you know you're seeing you're seeing, um, two of those guys on the field at the same time, you know, two those half back type bodies at the same time. And and uh, you know, the more the more opportunities to put athletes on the field, um, you know, to create matchups in this whole leagues about matchups. The better for us offensively with the bats a guy

gets at hand the hand it's a little both. But yeah, if a guys, if a guy's rolling, you know, in the run game, we want to keep keep feeding him, you know, unless it's a big run then we give him a break. And and and make make the change. But yeah, you want to, you want to. You know, it's like it's nice to have that guy on the bed you can put in at anytime. DGBS two catches, both came on the first drive Monday night. Really wasn't even targeted like five minutes. What do you see from him?

I guess he was in a formation. What are you not seeing when you see? Yeah, well that that that penalty was actually on Nelson more than that was on him because he ended up coming in motion. But those are things we can fix. You know. We actually had um DGB targeted a couple of times from a play call standpoint in the red zone. It's just that the play design went to the other side of the field and Carson went the other way. Um. You know, we

just continue to keep working with him. We've increased his his workload the last last week and we want to continue to do that and move him around. The more comfortable he gets with our system. You gotta know where he's at. I mean, you see, you see what they've done with him, and you're moving him around the field in different spots and single them up, put him in

bunch packages, stack packages. I mean they you know, one thing Todd does is does well is he moves his personnel around and you know, he takes advantage of that. He knows what he has and um, you need to know where where he's at. But they've got some explosive guys on offense that, um, I think if you put all your attention to one guy, another one can can can can beat you. So you got to pay attention to all those guys. How was that back? Well, I think you just you just put on the tape and

you just watch him and how how he competes. And um, sometimes body language on film can can raise an eyebrow, good or bad. And in his case, it was good body language, meaning you know how he um, you know, um completes a deep throw or in his case, he makes a nice run and he gets up and he excited and motivating and the guys you can just see the guys sort of rally and it's you know, you don't see at all unless you watch a TV copy

obviously of the game. But those are things that kind of stand out and you kind of raise the eyebrow that that this kid has that fight in him, has that drive in him, and that competitiveness that you want out of that quarterback position. Yeah, you saw it, you saw it. I mean I can remember even going back and I think it was the first game of the season against Montana and just not really knowing much of

him at the time. But but here and here's this this kid out of North Dakota State, you know, playing Montana, and you watch the game and you're kind of going something special here. It would be this would be a good test for us. This will be a great opportunity for our players to go against a fine football team. Um. You know, the Steelers have great tradition, great history, They're They're a good football team and coach Tomlin does a

great job getting those guys ready to play. And I think I think from our standpoint is this will be a you know, it's only it's still early in the season. Does it make or break your season? No, it doesn't. But at the same time, it's a good it's a good benchmark for us and in our in our you know, uh, success of the year. I wish I was there now. UM, I actually spending spend quite a bit of time. I want to. I want to I want to get in

there and I want them to. Um. That's where all the dialogue begins, so I can I can hear what they're thinking. The quarter backs, particularly Carson Um after practice when we're watching film, a chance to get in there and watch practice tape and and things like that, and um, you know, as often as I can, I'm gonna be in those be in those meetings. Yeah, yeah, all quarterback. Yeah, it's a tight room. Which a tight room. I just let I let I let John, I let the quarterback

coach run the meeting. Um. If I interject, I interject, But you know, I the way it works is I send my message through Frank, Frank, through the through the position coaches, and at the same time, I, you know, if I want to interject something, I'll interject. And and just making sure there's one voice in the in the meeting room and they're not hearing from now, they're not hearing three different answers from three different people. The message is the same. Thanks guys,