Press Pass: Kelly Updates Position Battles

and I hope he gets what he's looking for. So turning another conversation, some people look at this, they say, well, he didn't fitted culture and ship Telly has here And secondly, no, not at all. That's not true. You know, it was a money issue and we just didn't come to terms of the money issue. So culture, I really don't. I don't think about what it is. It's there are a bunch of guys that are working very hard, and that's what we're looking for. So and Evan works very hard.

We just we weren't. It was a money decision and we just weren't on the same page on the money. So how's Ryan Magic looking. Yeah, Ryan's been a really good addition to us, um big physical running back. You know, I don't think you really know how actually big he is to you kind of pull up next to him. You know, he's almost two hundred and thirty pounds, I mean, and he can really run. He's explosive. I think when he sees a hole he can change gears and accelerate

through it. Um. You know, we're using him a little bit on kickoff return. I think because of taking advantage of that speed. There's not a lot of guys that have that speed to go along with that size. Um. But we're really excited about having him. He's worked extremely hard here since we got him. Came in right after we acquired him, has been working really hard. That whole group is doing a great job, a bunch of running backs.

But we're excited to see see what he's like. And it'll be a lot different too with the pads on, because you know, obviously they're letting him go. But I think he's one of those guys when the pads on that will will become even bigger because he's gonna be a real tough guy to tackle and bring down. Your scheme, how interchange will backs and safeties or how much do they have to be? I can you envision a day

then we just say defensive or backs. Um. I think you have to be somewhat interchangeable because our safeties have to cover. You know, we're not a one guy free safety, one guy in the box safety. You know, it's not what we do. We're not a single gap defense. When you're a single gap defense, you got to have a guy that's from the secondary that's devoted to fitting into the front, whether it's at the linebacker position or at a down safety position. You know, we're we're more of

a right and left safety. Operation and coverage skills are are a premium, you know, to go along with tackling, to go along with the other things. I don't think there there's a lot of carryover. But you know, obviously I think you're better cover guys are on the outside. Um, you know, but you'd like to get four guys if you're playing with a you know, a base defense, four guys that can do it all, that can cover and

can tackle. Where do you think he's best based on Eric's corner, you know, that's where we have him at. That's where he'll be UM for the fisiable future. In terms of where we are, it's it's very difficult for someone to learn multiple positions in terms of being able to fit in UM. But he's done an outstanding job at corner. He's tall, he's long, he gets his hands on guys, he can disrupt routes, he can, but he's

also got outstanding feet. Change of direction. Uh, seems to be around the ball a lot's causing a has caused a lot of turn and overs in the the ten OTAs in the one mini camp practice we had yesterday. UM, you know, always kind of punching the ball out. Seems to be around the ball. I think he's really picking up on a really well position safety. Walts doing a real good job. You know. I think Waltz has experience in there because a lot of his time in the

National Football League has been as a nickel. So if you're a nickel, uh, you're an inside player, and that's really what you know. You're another safety. You're kind of playing down safety, but you're playing a lot of match coverage on UM open number two receivers and Walts fit in. He's a real smart um pick things up very quickly. Uh. And I think he's really done a really nice job there at the other safety spot. He defends of line. I mean he didn't really add anybody on right, where

do you guys? Yeah, we're excited about that position. I think it was probably one of our strong one of our strongest, if not our strongest position last year. Um, as you go through the entire season, Um, we've got we we we think we provided a little bit more depth forward. But you know, all those guys in another year in the system. You know, Fletch and and Vinnie and said and those guys have been here for a

couple of years. But then you throw bo Allen and Taylor hard into the mix with those guys, and we think we'll have a good rotation and excited about where we are from a defensive line standpoint, Yeah, can you see it expanded? You know, but just wait still ways to get him on the field more different way. Yeah, it depends on the situation. But if he's doing a hell of a job, you know, he's playing a little

bit outside, a little bit of inside. I think he's expanded his role in terms of where we can deploy him. But I see that happening again outside on the line, not on the bench, I mean outside on the field. Yeah, you start a little outside linebacker guy. Yeah, Taylor has done a really good job now. You know, almost last year was almost like a red shirt year for him

if you look at what happened to him. Um came in at two hundred and eighty one pounds and when we first drafted him, it's probably up the little bit over three hundred right now. Has really kind of changed

his body around in the in the weight room. Um and and really one of those guys that with Bo Allen and kind of looking at him moving into a second year that we're really counting on to help us with with Flash, with Vinnie Um, with Benny Logan, you know, you know, we uh, with Cedric, we got we feel like we got a lot of guys there that can that we can keep fresh and kind of rotate through in which we're trying to do on the defensive line,

like like Evan and Todd this offseason. And you also have to have confidence see the guys that could step in forward, those guys and be a productive offense in line. What have you seen from these guys so far even last year that gives you that confidence. Well, I've seen We've seen Allan play, I've seen Allen playing games, and I think have been very very productive in games, So we're very confident in him. And I've seen also seen Matt and h Gardner playing games and been productive in them.

Kevin Grafs another guy that's really has come along here in the offseason. Denis Kelly has played productive football for US. So we're real confident on all those guys that we have an opportunity to go out there and coach every day. Specifically, I know the sack numbers weren't huge last year, but what did you see from him from a past rushing prospect. Just a disruptive force, you know, can really put the

pocket from the inside. And I think, uh, sometimes the sack numbers aren't the whole indication in terms of what you can do. But I think if you can make the pocket collapse the way Fletcher makes a pocket collapse, and a lot of you ask Connor, carn will be the first one to tell you some of his sacks were beneficial because Fletch moved the pockets so much inside that the quarterback had a flush out to where Connor was,

you know. So I think sack total sometimes are are a little misleading in terms of it's not an individual thing. Sometimes it's a it's a group thing, and I think in terms of what he can do on the inside, there's not many guys in the league that have that type of explosion uh in pass rush moves that can really disrupt things on the inside. Starts to wonder if you have any thoughts as to why I don't spend

any time thinking about it. When we watch him out in the field training, I'm we're very excited about him. When he got an opportunity play against Green Bay, when he played against Jacksonville, when he's gone in games for us, he's he's been a really good football player. So Zat just talked about me best tighter lead. What's in a team for him to get in the level of different that's up to you guys to figure out. But I mean, I don't really care where where he's rated. I know

he's doing a great job for us. It's got an unbelievable work ethic because it really had no offseason in terms of what he did this past you know, from when our season ended against the Giants to when we started the offseason program in terms of what he did to to work on his craft and um make himself better not only as a receiver but as a blocker, you know, sought out. You know a lot of guys do things and try to go get with a coach to prepare them for the combine, but then they forget

about that. Zach's not that type. You know. He was traveling all over the country trying to make himself a better blocker or a better receiver. Uh, doing all the little teeny things that's going to make him, you know, kind of take that next step, and that's that's what we're excited to see where he goes with that. There was a report that San Francisco for year layers to kind of account for the norms of the Lenny in generation,

keep meeting shorter. Allowed players time to check their life for teaching things like that, do you take any of that kind of stuff and meeting serrations when you deal with your team the past that you Yeah, our meetings have always been structured in a very short manner. We understand exactly how much time a meeting should be devoted to. There are a lot different Our meetings have always been a lot shorter since I've been there, and even when I was at Oregon, so you know, we've never met

for more than an hour. I'm We've never had an hour and a half meeting, which I think was the norm in this league. But we've been doing that for a long time. So your ten years having full control, do you foresee a diffical bounce between having basis decisions and how your reputation will be a lot of room to players being a couge and being there daily basis Now, I don't at some point though, on hearing to be players are going to be happy. I think that happens everywhere,

happens in any type of business. You know, you may not be happy with your contact or an inquirer. I mean, that's just you got to go talk to your boss about it, you know, And that's part of the job. When you're the boss, you have to make those decisions and that's what it's all about. So also had type of control someone before talk to be money guy and also met the coach to be able to play you really want to Yeah, I don't see a problem with that question now. It's a good point. I think he

has progressed, you know. I think the one thing that's difficult, especially on a first year quarterback. You kind of saw it a little bit with Mark last year, is you know, we throw our guys in the deep end and they get everything and then they got to go. And then they may drop back ready to throw, but they have

a rookie receiver that ran the wrong route. They're expecting a guy to be here, and when he's at the top of this drop the guy he's actually on the other side of the field because he didn't know what he was doing. So you got to deal with a little bit more variables when you're you're you're working out with a bunch of guys that have actually been there, coach, so it takes a little bit of time to get

him on the same page. But I have seen, um, you know, an improvement from Tim since the day we got him, you know, in terms of his his knowledge of what we're doing, understanding where everybody is. You know, there's a there's a whole process and for him, what we have done is dif then what he's done anywhere else. So in terms of learning our terminology and how we do things, I think he's really each week you've seen an incremental bumping him. So excited to see where that

takes him. And it'll be a good competition as we get into August. Yeah, I think mechanically has improved, but I think he did a lot of that, you know, a lot on his own. We usually when we're out here the first phase of phase two, we do a little bit of mechanic works, but then once we really get into it, you know, we're talking about coverages, spacing where the ball is supposed to go, on all his

other things. We're not spending a whole lot of time, and especially with a quarterback, talking about warrior arms, slot is or any of those things. So okay, thanks,