Press Pass: Doug Pederson

all practice today. Um, for the teams, you can players at the last couple of weeks that you're prepared this week in terms of getting back on traffic where you will look forward the body. Yeah, you know, my focus with the team has just been you know, we gotta stay positive. You know we we obviously have to make the necessarily necessary corrections and and and you know, um, uh moved past obviously, UM got a lot of football left, you know, a couple of games in your season, a

couple of hiccups. You know, we just gotta, we just gotta Every day is a challenge because it's a it's a new set of circumstances. Um, gotta gotta go to work today, the the hard work, the preparation all has to start over again today for for another for another good opponent. But from my standpoint, just staying staying positive, you know, staying up beat the energy level. Um, just keep reminding them that they're a good football team and they've got to believe in one another. And and put

the thing, put the thing back on track. But stood out saying, well, you know, I always thought he was a very accurate thrower. And he throws a good ball, good football. And and the other thing you're seeing is, uh, a lot of familiar concepts that he's that he's used to throwing, and he's not he's not hanging onto the football back there. He's getting good pass protection and and uh, you know, for the most parts, delivering a delivering a

good football. And the guys are working down the field, I mean you're seeing, you're seeing these guys separate and make make good plays for him. And and the ability to run the ball, you know, has helped him. But you know, Sam's always been very accurate. He's he's smart, he understands defense and gets the ball out of his hand. We talk about Sam on Monday. Knowing your offense and that sort of thing, but your defense, knowing his tendency is having faced him for the last year, can that

help them in the game. I think so. I think so. I think I think they know that the type of athletes that Sammy has, a type of quarterback that he is. And and um, you know, it's hard to get to a guy like Sam as I mentioned, because he gets the ball out of his hand so fast, and he utilizes the quick game, and and it's it's tough to it's tough to defend sometimes, you know, from a pass

rush standpoint. But you know, we got to do the best we can to to to you know, our pass rush has got to it's got to show up this week obviously, and and uh we got to match the intensity on their side of the ball. And and um, you know, uh, with with any game in the National Football League, if you can disrupt timing from a quarterback, I think it's an advantage. How to digest the trade? Looking back, now, what do you make of how it's

affected those teams? I think it's been a win win honestly, Um, you know in our case, uh, you know, our our first round, second overall pick, getting a chance to play this early, getting his feet wet, learning, putting us in a great spot three and two. He's played a lot of football. He's getting better every week. And in their standpoint, they they they got a good quarterback and he went to he went to a playoff caliber football team with

a tremendous defense. And um, I know Adrian Peterson's not there, but but a good run game and and you know it was a win win for both sides. Will you so confident day, Big Bat will play better in your second game game? I just think you learn, Um, you just learned from the good and the bad. You kind of get your your feet wet, you settle into the game.

He got better as the game went on. Um, we had other breakdowns, you know, offensively other than other than than than Big V. So you know, I feel comfortable with uh with him going again this week. He's you know, he's a type of kid that's hard on himself. He uh makes the corrections, he moves on. He'll work as

fundamentals and technique this week. You know, well again this is a this is a good pass rush again this week and and uh, well you know we'll help them do the things that that that you're seeing teams do and that we'll do. And um, so we still have, you know, full one hundred percent confidence that he'll he'll be able to get the job done to himself. Um, how has he handled a few days since not having

a great debut? Fine? You know fine? I mean the thing is in this business and uh, players and coaches and you just have a short term memory. Man, You just you just you just forget about it on Monday and you move on and and uh that's that's what players do. And you know, Um, these guys are these

guys are resilient guys. They bounced back, I can. You know, they might take a few lumps early, but but they all they're professionals and they know how to handle their business and and uh, he knows how to handle this, and uh, you know, he's he's gonna be fine. Obviously having the best season VISI careers so far. I mean before the trade was made, were you pretty competently needed to have similar success at how he stayed here? I was.

I was fully confident that he was going to have the type of success that he's having now with Minnesota. He he came off the preseason with us here um at an all time high. He was he was throwing the ball with accuracy, with with uh, you know, with decisiveness. He was feeling comfortable with the offense. And that's why I fully I fully expected him having him with our starter, you know, to have the same type of numbers that

he that he has there. So it's not a shock the original decision to start making, I know, it's a claborative effort. Claborative that port in terms of office development, Like when you whittled down to your time at three, what's how you were in the front office staff involved in the decision for Particul to start. No, No, they weren't. Um. This was truly a coach's decision, you know, on my part and Coach Stout and Eugene Chung and just Frank Reich and collectively just kind of taking in all the

information and making this decision. Rush. He didn't have any sexes passed some day. How do you get that thing back one track? You know, it's a pride thing. Number one. These guys, uh, you know, I know this group, it's a veteran group that we have here, and they don't like to stay down long. Um, you know they they've they had a little bit of a set back, and I know they'll come out, they'll come out fighting this

week and they'll find ways to get it done. I know, you know Schwartz schemes, the aggressive mentality on defense and and and coach Wilson, we'll have we'll have these guys ready to play and and uh, they'll they'll bounce back. But you know, a little bit of a setback, but you know, hey, they got to come out swinging and fighting and be ready to go. Giving your familiarity with with Sam, how are you gonna take advantage of that

when it comes to the defense of scheming? Well, just knowing who he is, knowing the type of player is obviously is uh in an advantage to us, just like he might have an advantage, you know with some of the things that that we're doing here or personnel. But you know, our our focus is just getting ready for the Vikings as a team and uh, you know, we

know he's playing playing well. And it goes without saying I mean any any you have to put pressure on the quarterback, whether it's with four guys, five guys, six guys, and and Uh, you know, we've got to be able to do that this week. It's just it doesn't matter who's standing back there, you know, at quarterback, and and it just so this week we know we know this guy and um, um, so that gives us a little bit of a of an advantage just kind of knowing

his demeanor in his chemistry. But at the same time, you know, he he gets the ball out of his hand, so it's a little bit harder to get to him. Their their defense has done a real good job against some pretty good quarterbacks this year. Is it the scheme, is it personnel? A little bit of both. It's a little both. I mean they got they got a great personnel and defense, and they're healthy. They're coming off of buy obviously, um you know coach Zimmer and and and

they really they fly off the ball. Now, this is a good This is a good defense and good defense for a reason. And um, you know that it's one of those one of those schemes where they don't do a lot. They kind of kind of just line up and play defense. But their their sound and what they do, and you know, again it's it's an aggressive style. They let their defensive line just come off the ball and put pressure on the quarterback. They got two good ends and um, you know we gotta be we gotta be

ready for for another for another test upfront. What do you identify as the reasons for just tacking? You identify the reason for tacking moving such an issue against the residents. A lot of it is just uh, slightly being behind blocks, being out of position, stopping our feet, dropping our heads. You know, just fundamental things things that we can continue to teach and practice and and um, you know, the bag work and the drill work that that uh, the

defense teaches. We just got to continue to stay on it. And you know, it's it's all about details. I reminded the team again this morning. It's it's about the fundamentals and the details. And each person coaching player has to detail their work. Meaning you can't you know, I can't let anything slide. Um, I've got to I've got to stay on top of everything and and and it just goes and it just carries over to each player. But it's just fundamental work that we got to continue doing

practice at bits percentage. In the NFL, when you were studying the shorts, would you say to him there's gotta be more opportunities where we can bring extra bodies at the quarterback during the game and going forward. Yeah, you know, and there's a fine line with with putting pressure blitzing because you end up, you know, kind of kind of taking one guy out of the secondary. Uh, you know, and and you start exposing different different elements of your coverage.

If if I felt like it was a necessary thing to do, Um, again, you know, we won't panic over one football game because our pass rush. We know what type of guys we have upfront. We know Fletcher can be disruptive. We know Brandon Graham can come off the edge and bend the edge along with Vinnie and Connor. So you know, it's it's just it's it's one game. It's one little setback. Um. If this were the third, fourth, fifth game in a row, you know, maybe then you

have to reevaluate. But but hey, we gotta we just gotta get ready for this game and um, continue the process. We have a process, a plan in place, and and we'll continue to stick to that and the storylines will be Obviously this game could be a left random on the trade before. How will you handle the cars of

the profession it will be on day this game. Yeah, you know, I there's there's pressure every week, and I get the fact that the trade happened and and but our focus is within our building the guys we have and getting our guys ready to play. And you know, um, I'm not gonna put any added pressure, you know. And on Carson, I was just gonna let him play. And I need to be smart and how I handle this game from a play calling standpoint too, and and how

I handle the offense that way. And you know, we got to rely on the ten other guys out there. And I know there's gonna be a lot of a lot of peripheral stuff, you know, probably said or written about these two. Whoever plays or whoever wins, this one played better than that one, this and that and the other and the decisions and I get all that, Um, but the decision has been made and he's our guy, and we're gonna get him ready to play each and

every week. And his preparation every week that that I see and what we've seen on offense, I mean, we're headed in the right direct and for really for both teams, it's it's a win win. As I mentioned, earlier. It's a win win for both teams. I feel like I feel like Sam given this opportunity, he's excelled, He's done well. He went to went to a fabulous football team, a playoff football team, and uh, you know we we're taking

a young quarterback. Who's I mean, we're three and two start out three and oh and and we just got to get back to that. We're just we're close in a lot of areas, um, and we just gotta keep we just gotta keep that focus to be smart. Um order at times last week that you thought you were smart. No I'm not. I'm not saying I'm not saying that.

I'm just saying, you just gotta you just gotta understand, you know, how a defense is is defending you, um, you know, um knowing some tendencies a little bit um. You know, obviously we got to stay out of second and third and long situations. That goes without saying, because there's it's it's hard. You know. Then then defenses can just pin their ears and and and that's where they get a ton of their sacks, you know, So so

handling handling that that way, UM. From my standpoint, as a play caller and and and helping our offense in those situations to be successful. Is that being the smart part of the statement? Carson wentz his decision making the last couple of minutes of last game. He has been the greatest. Is that just part of the ad maturation process and trying to continue. You know, it's not a concern just because I know I know Carson and how he handles that and how tough he is on himself. Um,

it is part of a learning process. Each again, each week is a different set of circumstances. It might be in the same game situation, you know, two minute, but the actual play designed to play, call, the scenario, the whole deef, everything's different week to week. So these are things that he's you know, um, he's learning through and we're teaching him through and how to handle it and

how to be more prepared each and every week. And uh, um, you know that's the that's the That's the great thing about Carson is how how well he is able to just you know, remember something, fix it, move on and then and then not do that again. Kind of voiced his disappointment over uh not being the guy to start. Um, have you spoken him individually about that, and uh, how do you how do you want him to approach a

situation like that? Listen, you know he's a good player, and he's he's a big part of our our offensive line, and you know, um, it's just it's this, It's what it is right now. It's our decision and we've made that decision and and um, you know, he's he's a valuable asset to our team. If if if Kelsey goes down, or if Barbara or one of the guards to go down, he's the next guy in. And that's just uh, that's

just where we're at. And you know, um, we just continue to go that that that route each week an offense with Sam to get ready for the season. I'm much of the differences are now with Carson running and whereas you know, you you come up with plays of Carson likes. How much variation is there from that offense as you set out for this season. Um, it's we have a lot of the same concepts in every week.

We just sort of you know, put new formations to them, emotions or whatever we can to kind of window address them,

you know, I try to. The thing is about game planning is obviously you find out defensively, you know, their top two or three or four coverages, and then you find you know, you look at your offense and what you've done that has been successful and what are good versus all those coverages, and and then for this, you know, I got to keep in mind that it's still a young quarterback and I don't want to overload them with a lot of information, a lot of new plays, a

lot of new designs, this and that, and plus we got young receivers, and you know, so I don't just look at the quarterback position. I got to consider the entire offense when when when redesigning or putting in new new plays. And so we try to keep things very familiar, stuff that we've used in OTA's training camp, Concepts that are familiar to the guys. Because I'm a big believer that if you don't have to think about number one, where I'm lined up, Okay, what route is it, what's

the protection? Then you know you got an opportunity to be successful on that on that play. So we haven't changed or deviated much from from the first part of the season. Um, and we got to continue to uh to just execute a little bit better. Thanks guys,