Press Pass: Frank Reich

of the time. I mean, being right on eight out of ten of those isn't good enough. You got to be right all the time. So hopefully we'll keep going down that road and hopefully always need a you know, I mean, I think he's a Alan's an excellent pass protector, so um, I think that's his major strength, UM, and so he can do he can excel anywhere on the

offensive line at that position. You know, I think a lot of it is a combination blocks and stuff like that that naturally, when you're playing one spot more the left side, you know, working with the tackle in the center more as opposed to being out there at the at the right tackle spot, there's a little bit of a different but um, we expect that he can play winning football at any five or any four of those positions. Right, But you're playing wells and everything seems to be going

in sync. Is it difficult to get back that certain rhythm when you've taken a long break for Avie, I mean, it can be, but I think coach, you know, set the schedule up right, so you got to buy and we kind of got back in here and got after it a little bit on Monday, kind of got a little bit of rhythm and tempo going on Monday, met with the players a little bit, a little bit of an introduction, and that's that's intentional because there is a little bit of a lag, so you kind of get

that out of your system on Monday so that when you come back Wednesday, you're you're back in your normal routine. Progress of the house coming along very well. I mean, you know, what we saw with the big V was you know, on his college tape, but just one of the things that jumped out was how good of a pass protector. He really is unnatural he is at that. And then really, to me, what the big improvements that I've seen is in the run game. You know, a physicality,

a toughness, and aggressiveness. He's a very natural pass setting pass set or got great fundamentals and technique and pass protection. But where you've seen the improvement has been in the run game him as a possibility at right tackles should should they not be available? How do you how are you able to judge, just in a practice setting, whether he be able to successfully fill in in such a

critical spot. Yeah, I mean that's fair, fair, But I think one of the answers to that is, you know, he's running Scout team all the time, right, so he's getting a lot of reps versus a very good defense and versus very good defensive line. So um, and when when we're running scout team, I mean we're paying attention to that, I mean Stout and Eugene or paying attention and watching v and coaching him go against our first

team defensive line. That certainly gives you indicators because when you're running scout team, the defense is going full speed, they're going hard. So it's really a good measure. That's why we push our guys, those guys who are running Scout team. Is a good opportunity for them as well, it's just been gradual, you know. I mean I started to see it in preseason and be honest, with a couple of preseason games. As the preseason games went on, Um, you could see him getting better and better. Um, and

again it's what we expected. But you could definitely see the progression go as each preseason game. When when we're going to get more reps? Sorry, Doug mentioned yesterday that he'd like to see Doroyla Green Beckham get more reps in the games. What have you seen from them? And uh, anticipate using him in different in different spots other than thought, Yeah, his package, you know, the way coaches set it up,

his package has continued to grow. Um, it doesn't always translate into catches right away because sometimes they play you know, you set something up and against the coverage, the main coverage that you're expecting, and then you get a little

something different and so the ball goes somewhere else. So UM, but I think what you would see is over the course of time, as that continues to build and and you're really trying to target, hit on target, DGB on some things, I think that will just continue to show up. He's done a great job. I give him a lot of credit. I really like our receiver very unselfish. You know, when a guy's not getting the ball, you just don't hear a lot of you know, noise. Um, they're very

unselfish group, and that's that's fun to work with. Does your three head in set present to defenses? Well, you know, you got three guys who can block the point of attack, but yet they're also very good route runners and they're you know, big bodies who present you know, match You know, it's a different kind of a matchup dilemma for defenses. If you're playing a man coverage orin his own coverage, you got the big body. Um So, but yet you know,

Trey and Zach are almost like receivers. But yet they're physical enough and good enough blockers that you can get lot of stuff done in the run game. And so, um, you know that that's a that's a good thing. Brian Matthews is still kind of been bothered on by the ankles since you know, before training camps started. Does that make like the rotation and running back gave you more

important for he does going forward? Yeah? I mean, and those guys have again, those guys have done a good job, you know, Duce rotating them in there and uh again, unselfishness. You know, every one of those guys, every one of those backs, every one of those receivers, they want they want the ball every time, you know what you want to But you got to give those guys credit. They've been unselfish and uh, you know, it's good that we're

rotating guys through. And I think it affords a guy like Ryan if if the ankles bother them a little bit, where it can get to full strength, full autonomy with that not full you know, Doug has Doug is you know, he'll kind of take it to Doug. Hey, here's what I'm thinking this week. You know, Um, here's the rotation I'm thinking of, and then kind of Doug will put his stamp on that and then but their Doug deuce does have a lot about autonomy within the game to

rotate it as he sees fit. Your forty third down situations, Frank, have been three yards or less. Obviously, it hasn't been a big problem in the first three games, but that's something that concerns you're going forward as far as needing to get in more third and shorts. Yeah, you know, it's good that we've you know, our third down stats haven't been good, but we're we've won. We've still won the game. So anytime you can kind of get by and cover up an area of weakness and still play

winning football, UM, that's that's a good sign. Means you're doing other things well to kind of cover up for that. We're getting some chunk plays, um, you know, on first and second down we're picking up. But but it's an area that it kind of allows us a little time to keep improving there. So and and like you said, it's been we're just not in third and short very much because of penalties, um, and because of you know, some negative play. So we just got to do a

better job of being disciplined. You know. To me, discipline is the big thing with penalty. Some of the calls are maybe not great call, you know, maybe not true penalties, but you got to live with that, um. And then you got to do a good job if you get a second along, you got to be efficient on second along, whether it's a run or a pass, you got to get half of it back and try to get in a third manageable. Those are the keys in general, been as efficient as you like. I think it's been I

think it's been solid. You know, I feel it feels like every week it's getting better and strong, you know, I mean, it just it feels like it's going well. I like, I like the progression of where we're going. Potentially Carson design Quebeck forwards is to see him goes along with feelings too much they did. Um, you know, I mean, I think you got a guy like Carson who's a dynamic athlete, and the threat of him running is as much a weapon for us as anything else.

And so, um, you know now that you kind of feel now that he's kind of over that preseason thing and you feel like he's hitting his strength. You know, he's hitting his stride in a lot of ways. Um. Yeah, those things, you know, could come into more play, but it's the threat of those things is just as important to us. And you just have to, like you said, you have to balance it. You can't overuse it. He's got to be smart when you do use it. And

but it is a good weapon to have. Do you see Like on the sproles played, you see defenders coming up because they know they have to absolutely, I mean, you know, absolutely, And I Just think as time goes on, he'll make more and more plays like that, and you know, guys will start hanging back and he'll run in game ten, or he'll running game seven, and you know we'll have a we'll have kind some kind of read option on where he runs and keeps it. Just when you have

a guy like that, um, it causes defensive problems. But the main thing is is he's still our quarterback. So for us to go where we want to go, he has to be able to play winning football from the pocket, to be able to make the decisions in the past game, continue to be disciplined in his progressions, you know, uh, and protecting the football like he's been doing. Um, and then those things are an added bonus. I think daring

Sproles struggled. I don't know if he struggled, but there are struggles to get him more involved in the offense than he was early in this season. He's had success so far earlier in this season. How do you a guy like that, he's probably more of a specialty back, how do you keep that from happening there? All right? You know, I mean I can tell you right away when coach, you know, when coach and I sit down and the whole staff and we sit down and start

talking about the game plan. I mean, Darren is one of the How are we going to get Darren the ball this week? I mean, that's that's always very early in the discussion. So when you got a guy like that, that's what we want to do. He's that kind of player. So we're going to design plays that are going to go to him, and then we figure he's going to get three or four in his normal rotation as well. But um, you want to look for opportunities. He's a playmaker,

and uh yeah, we're thinking about that every week. It looks like you'll have three healthy played ends this weekend. How does that impact the offense? I mean, I think it's it's great because they're good football players. You know that that's the key where U and now you can do things formationally. You know, you can do things formationally with three tight ends that you know you can create extra gaps, you know for certain things in the run game.

You know you can shift in motion guys, and you know know and you can kind of get an idea sometimes how a defense is going to adjust to a shift in the motion or how you know, there's certain formations that you get in and you can see tendencies that sometimes defense out and just speaking in general terms now, of course, but that's the advantage that a three tight

end package gives you in general. So our job as coaches each week is to take those generalities about a three tight end package and say, how does it work against the Detroit line defense? You know specifically, And obviously you can't lay that that out what that looks like, but that's kind of what you do. You know, there's certain things that for all teams a three tight end

package does. But now you've got to narrow it down to see what their tendencies are on defense, see their fronts, their coverages versus that kind of scheme, and then try to find a little holes in it that you can and try to accentuate that down to figure out how how you're going to get Darren in the ball m How does that whole process work? And is that enjoyable or is it kind of like a burden to go

into a game? Blast? I mean, it's a blast, I mean you know, um, you know, and it just starts, it starts with um, it starts within our core offense. You know, I mean, we want to take our court. You know the system that Doug is brought here. Um, you know he had a pretty good playmaker in Kansas City. You know that he had to work with. So you start how how did they use Jamal Charles in Kansas City? You know, boom, let's start there because this is kind

of already built into the system. And then you sometimes see something on tape or maybe somebody else on the step. You know, there's an idea too that comes into it, and you look for matchups. You look how you can get them when they're in man coverage. Um, who's he going to be matched up on? What routes? Does Darren run best versus man coverage from the backfield, you know, from closer to the line of scrimmage, um, And then just try to pick one or two or three of

those each week. You don't want to overdo it. You just you don't want to overdo it. You want to take a couple and create a couple of big moments there and then spread the ball around from there, you know, to the other guys as well, like Carson had pretty close to I was a perfect game. I'm sure you guys can always find something to coble with. But when you have a game like that where there are any glaring mistakes, how do you coach them up for the

following week? I mean, what are the areas that you start to focus on? You know? I mean I think, you know, even after you come off a big win like we had against the Steelers. You know what I like is I like our veteran leadership. I like our

maturity that we understand that it really is over. It does not matter if you do not strap it on starting Monday in practice and in meetings, if you do not strap it on for every meeting, if you are just a little bit off your game when you step out there on Sunday, you can you can get beat in a hurry. And so you know, our job as a coaches and as a offense is to stay focused, you know, day by day, and it doesn't matter what happened last week, win or lose. Um, we gotta get

we gotta get wired. He needed to do it, you know. I mean, I think as teams get more film on him. I mean, you know, if it's if it's the kind of film that he's been stuff he's been putting on tape. It's, you know, we got good players around him. It's not a one man show. He's playing good football, but it's because we have a good we have good offensive personnel, and it starts up front. Those guys up front are playing good football, and Stout and Eugene do a good

job of getting those guys ready. And the whole key for Carson is he's got ten guys around him, and he's got a defense that's playing great and special teams that's great. So um, yeah, he's playing good and we're happy with it. But you know, the success that he has had is he deserves a lot of credit, but it is it is he fully understands that he's benefiting from good play around him as well. H